Giant sand 'SOS' alerts heli crew

An RACQ CQ Rescue crew rescued five people stranded on a rocky outcrop off the coast of Queensland thanks to a giant ‘SOS’ written on a nearby sandbar.

RACQ CQ Rescue was contacted by Queensland Water Police at 14:15 hrs on 21 April to assist with the search and rescue of the missing occupant of a small boat that had been found adrift between Brampton and Cockermouth Island with nobody onboard. It appeared as though the boat had broken its anchor.

RACQ CQ Rescue was tasked to search the waters between Brampton and Cockermouth Islands and locate a 70-year-old male believed to be the boat’s occupant. After searching the area to no avail, the search area was widened to Wigton Island, further to the East of Cockermouth.

On the rescue helicopter’s second pass over the waters, RACQ CQ Rescue Pilot Tony Miller spotted the 'SOS' message and people on a rocky outcrop. The five people had been stranded on the rocks since 08:30 hrs in the morning when they had left the boat and gone ashore – their boat had broken anchor and drifted away. Due to the shallow waters surrounding their location, a rescue boat would have been unable to reach the people, so all five were winched to safety by the RACQ CQ Rescue helicopter and returned to the helicopter’s base in Mackay.