49 Rescued from Life Rafts After Passenger Vessel Sinks in Solomon Islands

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority's (AMSA) Rescue Coordination Centre (RCC) coordinated an air search on May 25-26 that successfully located survivors from a missing vessel in the Solomon Islands.

The 27-meter coastal trading vessel MV Solfish001 failed to arrive at Lata on a voyage from Honiara in the Solomon Islands on May 24th. At the request of the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in Honiara, AMSA tasked a number of aircraft to search for the vessel. 

These included aircraft from the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service, the Queensland Government, other civil aircraft operators and AMSA’s dedicated search and rescue Dornier aircraft from Cairns.

On the second day of searching, the Queensland Government aircraft and RAAF AP-3C Orion located five life rafts 90nm from Ndende Island in the Santa Cruz group of islands. All 49 passengers from the Solfish 001 were safely recovered by the MV Micronesian Pride later that evening.

 

This story is still developing...

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Source: http://www.amsa.gov.au/