The three fishermen were stranded on the tiny Pikelot Atoll, a 31-hectare island that is part of Micronesia. Pikelot is located about 3,000 kilometers north of Australia and the same distance east of the Philippines.
His second cousin was saved
According to a report issued by the US Coast Guard, the men remained alive on the island for more than a week. The letter they wrote on the beach was seen by the crew of a plane flying overhead.
Coincidentally, a Coast Guard member participated in the rescue of his second cousin. Because of his background, he can also speak to stowaways in their own language.
The men survived by eating coconuts. Rescuer Chelsea Garcia said: “The fact that they wrote 'help' on the platform was very important. Otherwise they probably would not have been found.”
It drifted 185 km
The men had drifted off from another island in Micronesia, Pulawat Island. This is about 185 kilometers from Pikelot. Their relatives have already reported them missing after they failed to return from a hunting trip. The search for their boat was disrupted due to bad weather conditions.
A US Navy search plane that took off from the Japanese island of Okinawa spotted the signal. A Coast Guard Hercules helicopter was then sent to the island, where food, water and communications were dropped.
“I could tell they were surprised that I spoke their language,” Coast Guard member Eugene Haleslius, who found a relative during the rescue, told CNN. “It's a crazy world. I even found out one of them was related to me. I couldn't believe it.” “
Four years ago, a similar rescue occurred on the same island, but the stowaways at the time wrote not help, but an SOS on the beach.
