Air Force Orion saves Tongan fishermen

A Royal New Zealand Air Force Orion crew saved the lives of six fishermen on the weekend when it located their boat, Denisiola, drifting 10km North of Tonga.

The crew found the stranded sailors at 4.30pm on Saturday after flying three hours from RNZAF Base Whenuapai in Auckland in response to an emergency beacon call.

RNZAF Orion captain Squadron Leader Andy Nielsen said the fishermen had run out of food and water and had been drifting for more than a day after their boat’s engine had stopped.

“They were in amongst a lot of reefs when we found them so they would have struck major difficulties if they had remained drifting too much longer. The boat’s emergency beacon stopped half an hour before we arrived on the scene so we located them initially through radar.”

A Tongan Navy patrol vessel, Pangai, towed the damaged fishing boat back to shore after being told of its location by the Orion crew.

It was the Tongan fishing crew’s first voyage in the boat, which was recently purchased from a New Zealand owner.

The RNZAF is responsible for search and rescue operations within New Zealand’s Maritime Search and Rescue Area, which encompasses six million square miles including much of the South Pacific.

ENDS