yacht missing off fraser island

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One person found, one still missing in search of Queensland waters overnight following distress call off K’gari (Fraser Island)

Boatie survives almost 18 hours in sea after a yacht began sinking in darkness

A woman has been found alive but a man is still missing amid a search and rescue operation in Queensland waters sparked by a distress call made overnight.

The pair, located off Sandy Cape at the northern tip of K’gari (Fraser Island) , radioed about 8.20pm on May 14 to report their yacht was taking on water.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Boatie survives almost 18 hours in sea after a yacht began sinking in darkness.

The yacht was reported as in distress near Breaksea Spit, to the north of the island.

The woman was located on Monday morning and retrieved by a rescue helicopter about 11.30am.

She has been airlifted to Bundaberg Hospital for treatment.

The search continues for the missing man.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA)‘s Essendon-based Challenger rescue aircraft is assisting with the search along with five rescue helicopters, Queensland Water Police and Volunteer Marine Rescue (VMR) from Hervey Bay, an AMSA spokesperson said.

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Woman rescued after boat sinks off Qld’s Fraser Island

John Crouch | May 15, 2023

A woman has been rescued while the search for a man continues after the pair were reported missing from a sinking vessel in water off Queensland’s Fraser Island.

Two people were on board the vessel of the northern tip of the island, also known as K’gari, when they radioed for help about 8.30pm on Sunday, police said.

Police and volunteer marine services began an air and water search before rescue helicopter crews plucked the woman from the water about 11.30am on Monday. 

She will be airlifted to Bundaberg Hospital for treatment.

The search involving multiple aircraft and vessels continues for a missing male.

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Search to resume today for man missing in ocean off K'Gari

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Search underway for unaccounted passenger after yacht sank off Fraser Island

A search is underway for a man who went missing Sunday night after a yacht sank off Queensland's Fraser Island.

One woman was rescued from the water via helicopter yesterday however, her male passenger remains unaccounted for.

UK tech tycoon among missing after superyacht sinks off Sicily

U K tech tycoon Mike Lynch was among six people lost at sea Monday after a superyacht sank off the Italian island of Sicily during a sudden storm.

The 56-metre (180-foot) long luxury yacht had been moored off Porticello, east of Palermo, when violent winds and rains swept suddenly up the coast before dawn.

Lynch's wife Angela Bacares was among 15 people rescued but the businessman and his daughter Hannah Lynch were missing, Salvo Cocina, head of the Civil Protection Agency in Sicily, told AFP.

Bacares suffered light injuries and was spotted by AFP being wheeled into a hospital in Termini Imerese.

Lynch, 59, is a celebrated technology sector entrepreneur and investor, sometimes referred to as the UK's answer to Bill Gates.

Divers who recovered a first body in the area earlier on Monday had seen one of the missing six trapped inside the sunken vessel, according to a source close to the recovery operation.

"It was terrible. The boat was hit by really strong wind and shortly after it went down," a British survivor named as Charlotte Golunski told ANSA news agency.

The Bayesian, flying the British flag, had 22 people aboard, including 10 crew members, the coast guard said.

Most of those aboard were British, and the passengers were guests of Lynch, according to Italian media.

- 'Screaming' -

Golunski said her one-year-old daughter, named by media as Sophia, had nearly drowned.

"For two seconds I lost her in the sea, then I grabbed her again. I held her tightly to me, while the sea raged. Lots of people were screaming," she was quoted as saying.

She managed to climb aboard a life raft, she said.

The yacht was anchored some 700 metres from the Porticello port when it was struck by a waterspout, which roughly resembles a mini tornado over a body of water.

Karsten Borner, the captain of another yacht anchored nearby at the time of the storm, said there was a "very strong hurricane gust" and he had to battle to keep his vessel steady.

All of a sudden "we noticed that the ship behind us was gone", he told journalists in Porticello.

"We found this life raft... with a little baby, and the wife of the owner," he said.

Fisherman Fabio Cefalu said he and other fishermen rushed to help after seeing a distress flare go up.

"But we didn't find anyone in the sea, we only found cushions and the remains of the boat," he told AFP.

A waterspout is a column that descends from a cloud to form a rotating mixture of wind and water over a body of water, often during severe thunderstorms, according to National Geographic.

Just a few hours later, the seas were calm as emergency services carried a body bag to shore.

Survivors included two people with joint French and British nationalities, a Sri Lankan, a New Zealander and an Irish national, according to media reports.

- 'No longer there' -

Camper & Nicholsons, the managers of the yacht, said in a statement that they were "assisting with the ongoing search" for the missing people.

Italian authorities have opened a probe into the incident.

The incident comes after Mike Lynch was acquitted on all charges in a San Francisco court in early June after he was accused of the massive fraud linked to the sale of his software firm Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard. 

The Bayesian was a luxury superyacht built by the Italian shipbuilding firm Perini Navi in 2008.

It had an 11.51-metre mast and could reach speeds of up to 15.5 knots, according to the Boat International website.

"The boat was all lit up. Around 4:30 am, it was no longer there," said one witness cited by ANSA.

"A beautiful boat where there was a party. A normal joyous vacation day at sea turned into tragedy".

Body found after father and son rescued from capsized yacht

Emergency services have provided a tragic update about a missing man after a father and son were rescued from a capsized yacht.

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The body of a 65-year-old man has been retrieved from the sea after a father and son were rescued from a capsized yacht.

On Sunday, a RACQ LifeFlight Rescue helicopter crew winched a 62-year-old man and his 27-year-old son from an overturned yacht near Lady Elliot Island, off the coast of Bundaberg.

It’s believed the keel snapped on their boat, causing it to overturn during their journey.

The father and son managed to climb onto the upside-down vessel and set off an emergency radio beacon at 5am, which alerted the Australian Maritime Safety Authority.

A rescue helicopter was deployed before 8.30am and the aeromedical team managed to locate the men within two hours.

Video taken by the helicopter crew shows the upturned yacht stranded in the water as a large rescue boat waits nearby.

The chopper crew performed two winch rescues by hoisting the men separately into the aircraft. The father and son were flown to Bundaberg Hospital for observation and remain in stable condition.

The helicopter then returned to the area to assist police in locating a third man, who was on board the yacht when it overturned.

After hours of searching, water police located the body of the 65-year-old man just after 2pm.

It’s understood the three men were travelling from Yeppoon to Brisbane when their boat capsized.

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1 dead, 2 people missing after boat crash in Old Saybrook

A motorboat carrying nine people struck a jetty at the mouth of the connecticut river monday night, by andrew masse and nbc connecticut staff • published september 2, 2024 • updated 34 mins ago.

One person has died after a boat crash in Old Saybrook Monday night, two others are missing and five people are in the hospital. The search for the missing boaters was suspended overnight and resumed Tuesday morning.

A 31-foot motorboat carrying nine people struck a jetty at the mouth of the Connecticut River around 9:15 p.m. Monday while returning from Block Island, according to the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection EnCon Police.

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Several 911 calls came in about the crash and rescue crews found the boat half submerged and significantly damaged.

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One man was found dead in the vessel and six people were taken to the hospital, according to DEEP. The boat operator is in critical condition, Captain Keith Williams, of Connecticut Environmental Police, said Tuesday morning.

He said he believes one person has been released from the hospital. The extent of the injuries the others sustained has not been released.

Two people are still missing.

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Williams said Tuesday morning that the tide was coming in when the boat crashed.

Multiple agencies, including police and fire crews from several nearby towns, the State Police Dive Unit, and a helicopter from the U.S. Coast Guard station on Cape Cod were searching and the search was suspended overnight.

It resumed Tuesday morning and Williams said crews remain in search and recovery mode.

This article tagged under:

Catamaran crew rescued by helicopter off Bundaberg 'absolutely did all the right things'

Topic: Disasters, Accidents and Emergency Incidents

Four men who were rescued by helicopter from a boat in waters near Bundaberg on Saturday "absolutely did all the right things", according to emergency services.

Key points:

• A 5.2m catamaran capsized as it attempted to turn around
• The men were individually winched from the water by RACQ LifeFlight Rescue
• One of men was treated for a leg injury at Hervey Bay Hospital

RACQ LifeFlight Rescue says a group of tourists was attempting to turn its 5.2 metre catamaran around, when it capsized off the coast of Fraser Island on Saturday afternoon.

The men managed to climb on top of the upside-down boat and alerted the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA).

They used an emergency position-indicating radio beacon, which hailed a rescue helicopter.

Despite fading light, rescue crews found the men just after 5:00pm.

They were individually winched from the hull and into the helicopter, before being flown to Hervey Bay Hospital.

One of the men required treatment to a minor leg injury.

The four men were "wet and cold" after waiting 90 minutes to be rescued off Fraser Island. ( Courtesy RACQ LifeFlight Rescue )

RACQ LifeFlight Rescue aircrew officer Brent Malden, who operated the winch, said "these guys absolutely did all the right things".

"It shows the importance of safety equipment," Mr Malden said.

"They were wearing life jackets, they had flares, they set off a registered beacon … one of them had the beacon tied to himself.

"Thanks to all those safety measures, we were able to find them quickly and rescue them."

The men were in remarkably good shape, despite their ordeal.

"They were wet and cold, because they'd been out there for about an hour and a half before we arrived," Mr Malden said.

"They had set off flares to try to alert other boats that they needed help, but it seems nobody saw them, perhaps due to significant smoke haze around the island."

AMSA says it is important that boat owners check their safety features are up-to-date so they can be easily located in times of trouble.