15 December 2010
Two men were successfully rescued from their cray fishing trawler off South Australia today.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority’s Rescue Coordination Centre received an Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB detection about 90 nautical miles west of Robe, South Australia at 6.20am (Adelaide local time).
The EPIRB was registered to a cray fishing trawler Prowler, however contact was unable to be made with any of the emergency contacts nominated for the beacon registration making it difficult to know how many people were on board the trawler.
The RCC diverted a tanker, Raffles River, AMSA’s dedicated search and rescue Dornier aircraft from Essendon and the rescue helicopter from Adelaide to the vessel’s position. Raffles River arrived at 8.30am and made several attempts to rescue two men who were on board a life raft near to the fishing trawler which was heavily listing. Due to weather conditions and the size differential of the tanker to life raft, it was not possible to reach the two men. At 8.45am the rescue helicopter arrived on scene and successfully winched the two men to safety while the Dornier provided top cover to relay information back to the RCC in Canberra.
Both men are uninjured and have been conveyed back to Adelaide.
