‘Hanging by a thread’: How miracle sighting saved boatie’s life

Lost fisherman Siosiua Asi’s life looked doomed before a one-in-a-million spotting out of the corner of a pilot’s eye ensured a miracle rescue after 30 hours at sea.

WHEN a Mission Helicopter circled overhead, lost fisherman Siosiua Asi’s life was hanging by a thread.

His survival in the water for more than 30 hours after being swept overboard from the deck of a 5m half cabin vessel on Sunday morning has been hailed a miracle.

Clinging to an Esky and anchor retrieval buoy, being found bobbing on a windswept Coral Sea kilometres from land was like finding a needle in a haystack.

“You don’t have to be an expert person to work that out,” pilot Ray Cronin said.

“The buoy was one of the key things that identified him.”

The helicopter maintained its position overhead and crew waved to Mr Asi and he waved back but there was no way to immediately get the Tongan national out of the water.

“He was comforted by the fact that we had seen him and he was able to hang on until other rescuers arrived,” Mr Cronin said.

The Mission Helicopters crew recorded the survivor’s position and returned to base while Mr Asi faced an agonising wait for a specialist aircraft to return with a self-inflating life raft that was dropped to the stricken boatie.

“It’s always a very good feeling when you get a positive outcome from the search especially when they are in difficult circumstances,” he said.

“I can’t comprehend a situation like that, things would have happened very quickly

“Credit to him that he was able to hang on to that buoy.”

Mr Asi was located about 2km northeast of the Barnard Islands and was treated at Innisfail Hospital for hypothermia. He has since made a full recovery.

Kekly Tari and Dexter Bong from Vanuatu and Danny Sheather remain lost at sea.

Mr Asi was one of four mates that departed on an overnight fishing trip from Clump Point on Friday. They got into trouble the following day when the outboard failed and the boat sunk very quickly in heavy seas. Kekly Tari and Dexter Bong from Vanuatu and Danny Sheather from Mission Beach remain lost at sea.

On Monday Mission Helicopters owner Mr Cronin took family members of the missing men to search for loved ones from above.

“They were very upset,” he said.

“Unfortunately we did not see anything but conditions were choppy and there was a strong south-easterly.

“We really feel for the families that we have not been able to find (them) up until this point.”

Mr Cronin said police contracted the helicopter on Thursday in a last-ditch bid to find the three men alive although the major air search was scaled back on Tuesday.

“It’s an ongoing mission and until conditions calm down a bit it will make it difficult,” Mr Cronin said.

An update from police late Thursday stated officers assisted by SES volunteers spent yesterday scouring coastal land areas using two ATVs and a four-wheel-drive.

On Thursday two SES vessels searched the ocean and a helicopter searched from above with SES drones.

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Originally published as ‘Hanging by a thread’: How miracle sighting saved boatie’s life