Pensioner found alive after five days stranded in Arizona desert

Henry Morello said afterwards that he drank the windscreen washer fluid, used car mats to stay warm as night-time temperatures dropped, and read a car manual from cover to cover to pass the time.

He was finally rescued from the Arizona desert after being found by a walker.

“I just kissed him,” Mr Morello said. “He looked like an angel to me.”

Mr Morello, who was taken to hospital in Phoenix for checks, described his ordeal as he recalled making a wrong turn while driving home on February 7 from a restaurant. He became stranded after making made a U-turn and ending up in a ditch.

His car and mobile phone battery went flat and he tried to walk to safety but did not get too far and returned.

He did not know a search began when he failed to return home, but he ripped a chrome piece from his car and put it on the roof, hoping someone would see the reflection.

Overnight temperatures the week he was missing fell to between 4C and 7C.

Search leader Jim Sheehan, was on a search plane when he got a call saying Mr Morello had been found, said “Nobody ever gave up” looking for the pensioner. About 100 volunteers passed out leaflets and searched for him for four days.

Hospital doctors said he arrived in good condition considering what he had been through.

Mr Morello will not be driving by himself for a long time, added Mr Sheehan, a friend of 15 years.

He said he had learned a lesson the hard way: “I’ll never drive without water,” he said.