Two men stranded on an adrift boat off the coast of Australia's Northern Territory were able to attract the attention of rescuers by flashing the backlit screen of their mobile phone at the searchers.
Following an alert at 8pm of a missing boat, police started searching the Gunn Reef and South West Vernon Island area. At around midnight, a 26-year-old man and a 39-year-old man were located safe and well adrift in a 4.5 metre vessel approximately 200 metres from the channel edge.
During the search, occupants of the boat used a mobile phone, by flashing the screen at the searching vessel, to alert police to the exact location.
The outboard motor had seized, there was no anchor and the boat was taking in water. Life jackets were the only safety equipment on board. Officers walked the stranded party across the inter-tidal reef and secured the boat at the location for retrieval at a later date. The occupants were then conveyed onto Darwin.
Having been rescued, the 26-year-old owner of the vessel now faces a day in court for failing to carry safety equipment.
Posted to the site on 3rd November 2008
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/34443.php