Successful Tourist rescue after 16 hours

After 16 hours stranded at the sea, 22 people including 12 Chinese tourists have been rescued by police Cessna aircraft. Their boat were starting to leak when they were on their way from Pulau Mantanani to Kuala Abai last Friday. The police spotted them floating eight nautical miles in Tanjung Dudar waters while managed to hang on to life by wearing their life jackets. The boat consists of four tourist guides, 12 China tourists, four crew and two villagers. They arrived at the jetty in Rampayan Laut at about 9.05 a.m, Friday before continue their journey to Kuala Abai. While on their journey, the water started to leak into the 39-feet long catamaran. According to Mohd Zubil, he said that their Maritime Rescue Sub-Centre received a call from MERS 999 telling that the boat started leaking.

They started their operation of rescuing life about 7.15 p.m. According to the people who were in the boat, they set sail from Mantanah and were supposed to arrive in Kuala Abai but instead ended up near the Rampayan waters shoal about 18 nautical miles. The water was seeping fast that they had also called for assistance from other boat operators but the boat operator also failed to come due to choppy waves. The waves were like to be between 2.5 to 3.5 meters high with wind condition about 40km to 50km per hour.

Successful Search and Tourist Rescue

This successful SAR is made possible thanks effort and assistance from the navy, police, military air force as well as resort operators. The investigation still in the process before we find out the cause of the incident. The police need to review certain matters regarding safety requirements as well as rules and regulations.

The last cases on May 13, there were four people, three of them are foreign tourists were also rescued after surviving a ten-day ordeal at the sea. They were rescued by Vietnam trawlers in Terumbu Layang-layang, which is still in Malaysian waters before Malaysian navy and MMEA deployed their boats to retrieve the four from the Vietnam trawlers.