Cyclone Ilsa: Eight fishermen feared dead, 11 survive without food or water for nearly a week

Eight fishermen are feared to have drowned and another 11 have been rescued from an island off the Australian coast after they were caught in the path of a tropical cyclone.

The group spent six days without food or water on a barren island after their two wooden boats were hit by Cyclone Ilsa, which is thought to have carried record-breaking gusts of 180mph.

The Australian authorities said the men were rescued from Bedwell Island after being spotted by chance from a plane on a routine surveillance mission.

One of the boats, Putri Jaya, sank in “extreme weather conditions” on 11 or 12 April while Ilsa was gathering strength over the Indian Ocean, Australian Maritime Safety Authority said in a statement.

“They all remained (on Bedwell Island) for six days without food and water before being rescued on Monday night,” the authority added.

The only known survivor from the Putri Jaya spent 30 hours in the water.

He tied himself to a fuel can to stay afloat at sea before eventually washing ashore on the island, according to Putu Sudayana, the head of Indonesia’s search and rescue agency in Kupang.

The other boat, Express 1, ran aground on 12 April with 10 men aboard.

Bedwell Island is a sandy formation about 200 miles west of the Australian coastal tourist town of Broome.

The survivors were spotted on Monday from an Australian Border Force aircraft, which patrols the country’s northern approaches for smuggling and other illegal activity.

A Broome-based rescue helicopter was deployed and winched all 11 men aboard.

Read more on Sky News:
One dead and five injured after multi-storey car park collapses in New York
Alaskan dog survives epic 150-mile trek across frozen sea ice

Gordon Watt, a manager at helicopter provider PHI Aviation, said the rescue crew had been unable to land on the sand.

“They had to conduct winch recoveries which, in itself, is a challenging task,” Mr Watt told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

“The time of day meant that nightfall was upon the crew during the rescue, so they had to transition to using night vision goggles.”

The survivors were taken to Broome Hospital where authorities reported them in good health. They are expected to be flown back to Indonesia soon.

A gust of 180mph on an island off Australia’s western coast was the fastest ever recorded by the nation’s weather bureau.

While the reading remains preliminary and requires further analysis, the bureau said it beats the previous record of 166mph set by Cyclone Vance in the same region in 1999.