Officials reminded citizens to “always carry a distress beacon while on the water.”
Three people have been rescued from the Coral Sea after “multiple shark attacks” damaged their raft.
Following an alert from an emergency location radio beacon recorded in Russia, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority responded to the distress call early Wednesday morning at around 1:30am EST.
The beacon came from a nine-meter (29-foot) inflatable raft with three people on board – two Russian citizens and one French citizen.
The schooner left Vanuatu, in the South Pacific, and was bound for Cairns, a coastal city in Queensland, Australia. While details are scant, the stranded people were on a raft 835 kilometers (519 miles) off the coast of Cairns in the Coral Sea, according to AMSA. AMSA confirmed in a statement that the boat’s hulls “were damaged after several shark attacks.”
After receiving the beacon signal, AMSA dispatched a Cairns-based rescue Challenger to the boat’s location and enlisted the assistance of the Dugong Ace, a vehicle carrier sailing under the Panamanian flag.
The three people were rescued and were expected to arrive in Brisbane, Australia, on Thursday morning.
No other information was immediately available.
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