The two mariners were already helpless and hopeless until help came on the way after they wrote SOS in the sand.
SOS! Two mariners who were stranded!
Two mariners were stuck in the island of East Fayu in Micronesia have been successfully rescued after a US Navy Aircraft crew saw the distress signal they wrote in the sand.
The mariners, who were later identified by the United States Embassy in Kolonia, Micronesia as couple Linus and Sabina Jack who are both in their 50s, were stranded in the East Fayu Island for a week with limited supplies and no emergency equipment on board.
According to a statement of the US Coast Guard, a Navy P-8A Poseidon aircraft crew responded to a report of flashing lights and spotted the sailors “on a beach near the makeshift sign” on an uninhabited island in Chuuk, Federated States of Micronesia.
When they looked closely, the pilots saw an “SOS” etched on the sand.
SOS is an international code signal which is used by sailors who are lost in the oceans to seek help or rescue.
Nowadays, SOS became associated with phrases, “Save Our Ship” or “Save Our Souls” or “Send Out Succour”.
The couple left the Weno Island on-board their 18-foot vessel on August 17 but failed to reach their destination, Tamatam Island, where they were expected to arrive the next day.
On August 19, a search effort was launched in the western Pacific, to find the Jacks.
The entirety of the Coast Guard District 14, which covered the Hawaiian island, Guam, American Samoa and Saipan, was searched using 15 boats and two aircraft.
“The Coast Guard 14th District covers an area of responsibility more than 12.2 million square miles of land area, an area almost twice the size of Russia”, said Jennifer Conklin, the search and rescue mission coordinator at the Coast Guard Command Center Honolulu.
After a week of search, aircraft and patrol boat teams have searched a total of 16,571 square miles before finding the couple.
“The Search and Rescue Operation for Linus and Sabina Jack has been successfully completed”, a Facebook post by the embassy stated.
“They are found and are waiting for a ship to take them home”., it added.