The Times Online reported today that three men lost at sea for 22 days off northern Australia were rescued when they were able to send text messages.
In a story of survival that rivals that of two Tasmanian gold miners rescued on Monday after two weeks trapped underground, John Tabo, 38, his son, John Jr, 20, and nephew, Tom, 16, were found late on Tuesday, two weeks after they had been given up for dead when an air and sea search for them was called off.
The three Torres Strait islanders, missing since April 17, survived by eating raw squid and shellfish and drinking rainwater. They moulded metal tins aboard their disabled 16ft (4.9m) open boat into makeshift hats to protect themselves from the sun, and fashioned paddles out of jerry cans.
At noon on Tuesday relatives of the men on Murray Island, in the Torres Strait between Australia and Papua New Guinea, received a burst of seven text messages. “They said, ‘Need help, fuel, food’ and they indicated to their relations on Murray Island that they were in the Dwyer Reef area, and so that’s where we focused an immediate search with a helicopter,” Inspector Russell Rhodes, of the Queensland police, said.
“They were spotted and winched into the chopper at 4.10pm on Tuesday afternoon, after 22 days at sea.”
Apparently, cell phone reception is available for a distance around each of Australia's islands in that area, so when the men spotted an island, they paddled toward it until their phones showed a signal. They had conserved their phone batteries by turning the phones off when they weren't near land.
It's nice to see some good news every now and then.
How different things would have turned out if it weren't for cell phones. As annoying as they can be (church, movie theater), they have the potential to save lives.
1 comment:
How amazing. How excited their family must have been to hear that their loved ones were in fact alive, after having been though dead. Truly a blessing from the Lord.
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