Fishos rescued after heading out into Cyclone Alessia

FOUR fishos have been rescued by CareFlight after heading out to sea as Cyclone Alessia approached Darwin.

Careflight helicopter

FOUR fishos have been rescued by CareFlight after heading out to sea as Cyclone Alessia approached Darwin.

The three men and a woman, all aged in their late 20s, were winched to safety last night in the midst of a Cyclone Warning for the Category One Alessia storm system.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority(AMSA) called the CareFlight TIO Rescue Helicopter shortly after 6pm when a 406 MHz distress signal was picked up via satellite.

AMSA co-ordinators in Canberra said the signal came from an EPIRB which was not registered.

A CareFlight TIO Rescue Helicopter crew tracked the signal to a 5.25 metre tinny about nine kilometres upstream from the mouth of the Adelaide River, some 50km east of Darwin.

One by one the four climbed into a rescue basket then were winched up to the CareFlight TIO Rescue Helicopter which hovered 25 metres above them.

The helicopter then had to wait until a storm front from the cyclone swept over Darwin Airport before they could be flown back to the CareFlight base.

The four were checked by medical staff at the CareFlight base at the airport before they were collected by family members.

The fishos told CareFlight they had set out to go crabbing and fishing on the Adelaide River but as they attempted to motor home the outboard engine issued smoke before it seized.

In fading light they abandoned hope of being towed to safety by other boats so set off the EIPRB which allowed the CareFlight TIO Rescue Helicopter to home in on their location and carry out the rescue.

The four, who are all from Darwin, said they did not want to be identified.

"We were so pleased to see the helicopter as it came toward us," one man, identified only as Nick, said.

The fishos plan to head out in the morning to recover the boat which they tethered to mangroves.