A B-52 bomber crew instructed to look out for the 'boat from "Moana"' during a search and rescue mission are being hailed as heroes after locating six canoe paddlers who had been lost at sea for days.

On the morning of June 25, members of the US Air Force's 20th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron, deployed at Guam's Andersen Air Force Base, were on a routine flight in their B-52H Stratofortress bomber when they received a call from base asking them to help the US Coast Guard carry out a search mission.

The crew, airborne over Guam at the time, were asked to track down a historic, Pacific Island-style canoe that had been missing since June 19, according to an USAF news release.

A US Air Force B-52 bomber crew deployed were asked to help find six paddlers who had been missing at sea in their traditional Pacific Island-style canoe for six days

The B-52 crew spotted the missing passengers (pictured) from 19,000 feet in the air

The canoe's six sailors were supposed to have been on a one-day trip from Micronesia's Piagailoe Atoll and had traveled with minimal provisions.

When they didn't turn up after six days, their families asked the Coast Guard to find them.

Capt. Sean Simpson, 20th EBS aircraft commander, said the request was 'a unique situation' for the B-52 crew as, 'It's not every day the B-52 gets called for a search and rescue.'

B-52s are long-range, strategic bombers with the capacity to fly for extended periods of time and deliver precision air strikes.

Not only was the flight crew given a wide swath of the Pacific Ocean to search — a 275 x 230 nautical mile radius southeast of Guam — but they had never heard of the particular type of canoe that had gone missing and were unfamiliar with what it looked like.

That is, of course, until the movie Moana was mentioned.

'We asked for more details about the vessel, and the dispatcher told us "it's just like the boat from Moana,"' Simpson said.

The B-52 crew had no idea what the traditional canoe looked like until their dispatcher told them to look for 'the boat from "Moana"' (pictured)

The B-52's commander hadn't seen the blockbuster Disney movie, but fortunately his crew had

While that reference meant noting to Simpson, who said he hadn't seen the blockbuster Disney movie, his crew knew exactly what to look for.

After more than three hours of searching, the small wooden canoe and its six paddlers were sighted from 19,000 feet up in the air.

'It’s really a small miracle that we were able to see it because there were quite a bit of clouds,' 1st Lt. Jordan Allen, 20th EBS crew member, said.

The B-52 crew then relayed the canoe's position to the Coast Guard, which found a nearby civilian ship that was willing to help provide food, water and directions back to land, because the canoe's paddlers were unwilling to leave their historical vessel behind.

Jordan called the canoe rescue 'a highlight' of his deployment in Guam.

'Search and rescue isn't something people typically think of when they talk about the B-52, but our training and adaptability really paid off,' Lt. Col. Jarred Prier, 20th EBS director of operations said.

'Being a part of this successful search and rescue operation speaks to the diversity of our skill set and shows our importance here in the Pacific.'

Disney's Moana centers around the daughter of a Polynesian village's chief, who sets off on an adventure to find a legendary demigod to help save her village after it's stricken with a blight. She leaves the village sailing a boat similar to a Fijian camakau.

B-52 bombers were first introduced as nuclear bombers in 1952 and have a round trip, combat radius of 4,480 miles on one fuel tank. They can also be refueled in midair as needed.