Stranded tourists saved by mobile text message
Stranded tourists saved by mobile text message
JAKARTA (JP): Twelve foreign tourists and six cabin crew
stranded on a yacht named the Ombak Indah which was forced off
course in Lombok waters, West Nusa Tenggara, were rescued on
Thursday after one of the tourists sent a mobile telephone text
message to her boyfriend in England.
The yacht was carrying 10 British tourists, as well as one
Australian and one New Zealand tourist, from Nusa Lembongan in
Bali to Senggigi beach in Lombok early on Wednesday morning.
The engine failed in four-meter seas, allegedly due to big
waves in Lombok waters. The weather in Lombok had been bad for a
couple of days as a tropical cyclone with winds of between 50
kilometers per hour and 80 kilometers per hour pounded the area.
One of the British tourists, Rebecca Fyfe, tried to summon
help with her mobile phone but failed, so she then sent a message
"Contact Falmouth Coastguard, we need help - SOS," to her
boyfriend Nick Hodgson in Britain, AFP reported.
Falmouth Coastguard, which is based in southwest England, is
the station in England responsible for liaison with foreign
rescue services.
Hodgson quickly called Fyfe and then contacted coastguard
officials near London who relayed the message to Falmouth.
Falmouth officials could not reach anyone in Indonesia so the
alert went to the Australian Maritime Search and Rescue Center in
Canberra.
Through the Australian embassy, the SOS was finally passed to
Jakarta, which sent a naval gunboat to Lombok.
Mataram Naval Base Commander Col. Pramono Hadi said that the
tourists and the crew were all safe and had been evacuated to
nearby Sedutan beach, Gangga subdistrict, West Lombok.
He said that he had received the information about the missing
yacht around 5.30 p.m. and quickly set out to search for it on
the Ujung Pangkah naval vessel.
The rescue mission also involved other vessels, including the
Pandrong from Surabaya and Asia Jaya, which is owned by a travel
bureau in Bali, as well as the local police and two helicopters
owned respectively by mining company Newmont and the Denpasar
unit of the National Search and Rescue Agency.
As of Thursday morning, the yacht had still not been found.
According to Pramono, the exact position of the yacht was only
found after four of the tourists reached Sedutan beach using
surfboards at 10 a.m.
"The tourists said that the yacht was stranded on rocks some
1.8 kilometers away from Sedutan, after been forced off course by
huge waves and strong winds. The are still quite healthy and will
be brought to the Mataram immigration office," Pramono said, as
quoted by Antara.
Pramono added that he knew nothing as yet about the owner of
the yacht.(hdn)