A PILOT says he spotted one of two teens who vanished at sea floating on debris with his hands raised.

Austin Stephanos and Perry Cohen, both 14, set off on a fishing trip from Jupiter Inlet in Florida on 24 July.

The boys’ boat was buffeted by 64km/h winds before the vessel and the boys vanished. The capsized boat was found in March 160km off the coast of Bermuda.

Now pilot Bobby Smith says he believes he saw one of the two boys east of St Marys, Georgia, two days after they went missing.

Smith said he radioed for help but lost sight of the boy and wasn’t able to spot the debris again, according to the Sun Sentinel.

“It was obvious it was a person lying on their back,” Smith said in an interview with the newspaper.

“When we circled, both arms came up. It was a shock.”

Smith said his granddaughter took a picture of the object from an altitude of 3000 feet.

The photograph shows a blurry white mass in the water.

The development comes after it was revealed the boys sent an ominous Snapchat message to their friends saying “we’re f****d” before they were declared missing.

The teens’ friends received the message as a storm approached the harbour, The Sun reports.

On Wednesday, new evidence was released which makes it seem like the boys’ boat was tampered with.

Photographs show that the battery and the ignition had been switched off.

The lawyer of the Cohen family, Guy Rubin, told WPBF that the buttons were almost impossible to reach.

“We do know for sure that boat was disabled intentionally because the battery switch, which is very difficult to get to, was in the off position,” he said.

“That can’t be manoeuvred by the passage of time, the current, and other events. The key in the ignition was in the off position. If the storm came and capsized the boat, the battery switch and the key would not be in those positions.”

Marine expert Captain Jimmy Hill told People that the boys could have switched the battery off to save power.

“If the boat had any type of mechanical failure, it would have been shut off, otherwise the alarm on the engine would have been driving them crazy if they left it on,” he said.

The new evidence also details the last texts that the boys sent to their families.

According to People, Perry sent a text to his mother.

He said: “Mom, it’s Perry. My iPad is dead ... I’ll text you in a little. Love you.”

She replied: “OK. I wanted you to sleep home tonight. I miss you. We leave Sunday morning for New York. What about your work?”

His final message, which cut off halfway through, said: “but I was going to sleep at ...”.

Austin had posted a picture captioned “Peace Out Jupiter” on his Instagram.

He said that he and Perry were going to fish for dolphins “far off shore”.

Telecommunications company AT&T said Austin’s phone “pinged” off their offshore cell tower at 11.25am.

Austin’s iPhone has now been recovered from the vessel but his family are refusing to let police look at the phone.

The family are working with Apple to try and recover the files on the damaged phone.

Austin’s father Blu Stephanos said: “In light of the recent San Bernardino incident involving attempts by the FBI to retrieve data from a locked iPhone, we felt that it would be best to avoid the pressures of having these efforts played out in the media.

“We didn’t want to do anything publicly that might jeopardise the co-operation of the manufacturer. Unfortunately, I feel that the recent publicity and wild speculation may have done just that.

“Of course, any relevant information that might be retrieved from Austin’s phone will be shared with the Cohen family and the proper authorities.”

Stephanos’ decision has angered Perry’s family, who believes that there could be key evidence on the device.

Perry’s mother Pam Cohen told WPBF: “I miss him dearly and would do anything to get him back.

“It’s the largest search and rescue that the US Coast Guard conducted in modern day time. So the fact that eight months later, two vital pieces of information and evidence has been recovered ... why the investigation wouldn’t be reopened to look into that and find the answers, it doesn’t make any sense.

“Blu Stephanos has said no he will not sign the consent form and that he is demanding the phone to be returned to his possession.”

The pair were last seen at about 1.30pm on 24 July when they bought $110 worth of fuel for their boat. The five-metre whit single engine boat was found eight months later.

This story originally appeared in The Sun.