Originally Posted by
finalchecksplease
Read a newspaper article somewhere that said they had left it on "autopilot" but found this
here (Maritime Bulletin so probably more reliable than a newspaper) which confirms your version that 4 remained onboard until the engines had to be shut down because of the list. Would prefer to be winched from the deck but understand when a vessel is drifting in those seas it becomes very perilous so going into the water might be the safer option.
I did one rescue in South China Sea from a small yacht. The rigging was in such a mess and the yacht was pitching and rolling so much that it was totally unsafe to try to get the winchman on there. Trying to persuade the occupants to jump from a vessel into a very rough sea wasn't easy, but they eventually did it!