The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) is reminding all Australians of the importance of being prepared, wearing a life jacket and having a distress beacon ready before embarking on a water adventure.
Over the weekend, AMSA coordinated a successful multi-agency response effort to rescue the occupants of a 17-metre sailing vessel around 350 km east of Brisbane in the Coral Sea, following a distress beacon detection.
At 7:00 am AEST on Sunday, a yacht, with three occupants onboard, started taking in water and experienced electrical problems.
The crew, at risk of sinking, used a satellite emergency notification device to alert AMSA, who deployed the Essendon and Cairns-based Challenger rescue aircraft.
The aircraft arrived on scene at 10:00 am AEST and 11:30 am AEST respectively and successfully dropped two life rafts, communications equipment, and a de-watering pump to the vessel.
Nearby cargo vessel Darya Nitya responded to AMSA's request for assistance, arriving about 5:00 pm AEST and an Australian Defence Force (ADF) aircraft provided overhead communication support while the rescue was underway
NSW Police vessel Nemesis successfully rescued all three yacht occupants just after 6:45 pm.
This incident highlights the importance of being prepared at sea and AMSA would like to thank the crew of Darya Nitya, NSW Police, Queensland Police and ADF for their invaluable assistance in this rescue.
Images available here: https://spaces.hightail.com/space/3MNySexptY
