CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA (AP) – Eight Indonesian fishermen are feared drowned and another 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 primitive wooden Indonesian fishing boats were caught in the path of Cyclone Ilsa, which made landfall last Friday as Australia’s most powerful storm in eight years, with winds gusting at an apparent record of 289 kilometres per hour (kph).
One of the boats, Putri Jaya, sank in “extreme weather conditions” on April 11 or 12 while Ilsa was gathering strength over the Indian Ocean and heading toward the coast, Australian Maritime Safety Authority said in a statement, citing survivors.
The other boat, Express 1, ran aground with 10 men aboard in the early hours of April 12 on Bedwell Island, a sandy outcrop some 300 kilometres west of the Australian coastal tourist town of Broome, the authority 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 authority said.
The Putri Jaya survivor had tied himself to a fuel can to stay afloat at sea before swimming to the island, said head of Indonesia’s search and rescue agency in Kupang Putu Sudayana.
The fishermen live in the eastern part of the Indonesian archipelago.
The survivors were spotted Monday by the Australian Border Force, which patrols Australia’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.
The missing Indonesian fishermen are expected to be the only fatalities from Ilsa, which was a maximum Category 5 cyclone when it crossed the Pilbara region coast of Western Australia state southwest of Broome.
