Follow us on:

Facebook Twitter LinkedIn YouTube

Domestic

Coast guard helping in search operation for missing Australian couple |29 July 2020

The Seychelles Coast Guard is providing help in a search operation in the Indian Ocean to locate an Australian couple who have been reported missing since Monday July 20 after they sent a distress signal via Australia informing that their boat was sinking.

There has been an attempt to rescue them but this has failed due to bad weather and rough seas and their life raft had since continued to drift.

Meanwhile, the Seychelles Coast Guard has spent two days at sea in the vicinity where they were last located but the search has until now remained in vain.

The couple were on world tour on their yacht and their last port of call was Tanzania before they made their way towards Seychelles when last Monday the Seychelles Coast Guard was informed by maritime security from Australia and South Africa that the couple were in distress.  

The operation’s deputy officer at the coast guard, lieutenant Gerald Wong Pool said the couple were spotted in the vicinity of Aldabra very far from Mahe and the very extreme weather over the past few days made it difficult to go out on the day they were notified.

Australia called on a tanker in the vicinity for assistance. The couple were spotted but attempts to pick them up were unsuccessful as they were blown away from the tanker by strong winds and waves.

Mr Wong Pool said a coastguard team left Mahe on Wednesday July 22 for Astove where it remained overnight searching the area where the couple were last spotted but the two days of search were fruitless. With more bad weather on July 24 the search was called off, but Mr Wong Pool said they have alerted vessels travelling the area to be on the lookout for the couple.

 

Marie-Anne Lepathy

 

 

More news