Five people, two of them children, rescued near Kiribati after three months adrift

Nine people, a one-hour crossing, then silence

Nine people set out on 30 July from the Micronesian islands of Murilo and Ruo, on a crossing that was meant to last about an hour. A storm caught the boat, pushed it off course and it vanished. The US Coast Guard, backed by US Navy and Air Force aircraft, searched for ten days across tens of thousands of kilometres of sea before calling off the operation on 9 August. No trace of the boat or its occupants was found during the search.

Found by villagers on Fanning Island

On Sunday, 1 November, villagers on Fanning Island, a remote coral atoll in Kiribati's Line Islands, spotted the drifting boat and brought the people aboard to safety. Five of the nine were alive, two of them children. The boat had travelled roughly 5,400 kilometres from where it set out. The local MP, Kaotitaake Rakoroa, said a pastor had taken the group in and that medical officials on the island had treated them. Because medical facilities and transport links on Fanning are limited, he recommended moving the survivors to Kiritimati, the nearest urban centre, as soon as possible.

Aboard at departure9

Rescued alive5

Still unaccounted for4

Aboard at departure

9 people

Rescued alive

5 people

Still unaccounted for

4 people

Data from the article text

Condition of the survivors and the four still missing

A nurse told the Australian broadcaster ABC on Monday, 2 November, that all five were severely dehydrated and malnourished. They had received intravenous fluids and were beginning to recover. She said they could already smile and wanted to eat. The survivors have not spoken publicly about what happened and have asked for their privacy. How they survived so long at sea is still unknown, and so is what happened to the other four people who had been on board.

Talks on bringing the survivors home

Chuuk state governor Alexander Narruhn, speaking through an interpreter, welcomed the rescue and gave thanks for it. He also said his prayers remained with the four people still missing.

“Thanks be to God for his love and mercy that five of the nine people have been found.”

One account says Narruhn had already begun talks with the Kiribati government on bringing the survivors home. Another says he asked the president of the Federated States of Micronesia to open diplomatic talks with Kiribati for that purpose. The return of the survivors to their homes remains under discussion.

Earlier cases in the region

Other cases of people adrift have occurred in the same region. In October, an 18-year-old fisherman from Papua New Guinea was found after 41 days at sea, after his cousin had not survived. In September, three more people from Papua New Guinea were found alive after roughly 70 days adrift. The longest drift cited in these reports belongs to Oguri Jukichi, a Japanese captain, and his sailor, who survived 484 days in the Pacific after a storm damaged their ship. They were rescued off present-day California in 1815.