Eight Indonesian fishers are feared drowned and 11 have been rescued after spending six days without food or water on a barren island off the northwest Australian coast after a powerful tropical cyclone, authorities said yesterday.
Two wooden Indonesian fishing boats were caught in the path of Cyclone Ilsa, which made landfall on Friday as Australia’s most powerful storm in eight years, with winds gusting at an apparent record of 289kph.
One of the boats, the Putri Jaya, sank in “extreme weather conditions” on Tuesday or Wednesday last week while Ilsa was gathering strength over the Indian Ocean and heading toward the coast, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said in a statement, citing survivors.
Photo: AP
The other boat, the Express 1, ran aground with 10 fishers aboard in the early hours of Wednesday last week on Bedwell Island, a sandy outcrop about 300km west of the Australian coastal town of Broome, the agency said.
The only known survivor from the Putri Jaya spent 30 hours in the water before washing ashore on the same island, the statement said.
“They all remained [on Bedwell Island] for six days without food and water before being rescued on Monday night,” the agency said.
The Putri Jaya survivor used a fuel can to stay afloat at sea, Indonesian officials told Australian Broadcasting Corp.
The survivors were spotted on Monday by the Australian Border Force, which patrols the country’s northern approaches for smuggling and other illegal activity, from a plane on a routine surveillance mission.
A Broome-based rescue helicopter was deployed and winched all 11 aboard in failing light.
Gordon Watt, a manager at helicopter provider PHI Aviation, said the rescue helicopter crew had been unable to land on the sand.
“They had to conduct winch recoveries which, in itself, is a challenging task,” Watt said. “The time of day meant that nightfall was upon the crew during the rescue, so they had to transition to using night vision goggles.”
The survivors were taken to Broome Hospital.
The Border Force said in a statement that they were reported to “be in good health despite their ordeal.”
They have been flown from Broome to the northern city of Darwin, from where they would be flown back to Indonesia, the statement said, adding that Indonesian authorities have been notified.
“This incident highlights the dangers of undertaking journeys in small boats unsuited to rough seas and adverse weather events, both of which are common in Australia’s northern waters,” the statement added.
The missing Indonesian fishers are expected to be the only fatalities from Ilsa.
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
Two former Chilean ministers are among four candidates competing this weekend for the presidential nomination of the left ahead of November elections dominated by rising levels of violent crime. More than 15 million voters are eligible to choose today between former minister of labor Jeannette Jara, former minister of the interior Carolina Toha and two members of parliament, Gonzalo Winter and Jaime Mulet, to represent the left against a resurgent right. The primary is open to members of the parties within Chilean President Gabriel Boric’s ruling left-wing coalition and other voters who are not affiliated with specific parties. A recent poll by the
TENSIONS HIGH: For more than half a year, students have organized protests around the country, while the Serbian presaident said they are part of a foreign plot About 140,000 protesters rallied in Belgrade, the largest turnout over the past few months, as student-led demonstrations mount pressure on the populist government to call early elections. The rally was one of the largest in more than half a year student-led actions, which began in November last year after the roof of a train station collapsed in the northern city of Novi Sad, killing 16 people — a tragedy widely blamed on entrenched corruption. On Saturday, a sea of protesters filled Belgrade’s largest square and poured into several surrounding streets. The independent protest monitor Archive of Public Gatherings estimated the
Irish-language rap group Kneecap on Saturday gave an impassioned performance for tens of thousands of fans at the Glastonbury Festival despite criticism by British politicians and a terror charge for one of the trio. Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, has been charged under the UK’s Terrorism Act with supporting a proscribed organization for allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London in November last year. The rapper, who was charged under the anglicized version of his name, Liam O’Hanna, is on unconditional bail before a further court hearing in August. “Glastonbury,
RSS