SOS in the sand: pair found by US navy after week-long stranding in Pacific

Two people stranded for a week on a remote Pacific island have been rescued after signalling for help with a flashlight and an SOS message in the sand.

The couple, who had “limited supplies and no emergency equipment”, were found on uninhabited East Fayu island in Micronesia by a US navy air crew, who discovered them on the beach near the makeshift sign, which was spotted by search aircraft, the coast guard said.

The search team had responded to reports that someone on the island was using a flashlight to attract attention.

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“Since the island was potentially uninhabited and knowing [they] had a flashlight in their boat, we directed our search aircraft to overfly the island.”

The couple had set out from Weno island in Micronesia in a 16-foot boat on 17 August but the alarm was raised when they did not arrive at Tamatam island the following day as expected.

During a week-long search, the coast guard said it used 15 vessels and two aircraft to cover nearly 16,600 square miles (43,000 square kilometres) of ocean.

The couple were picked up by a patrol boat and taken to Nomwin atoll.