Fronds in need: Castaways saved after spelling out ‘help’ using palm leaves

Three castaways have been rescued from a desert island after rescuers spotted their message for help spelt out in the sand. The group used palm fronds to create the word on the shore after getting stuck on the small, uninhabited island of Fanadik. They were seen waving their orange life jackets by a US Navy helicopter crew who sent a boat to pick them up and take them to hospital.

Our combined efforts coupled with the willingness of many different resources to come together and help, led to the successful rescue of these three men in a very remote part of the Pacific

Lt William White, US Navy

The men’s families reported them missing on Tuesday after they did not show up at the Micronesian island of Weno. The three were heading in a 19ft skiff from another Micronesian island when a wave overwhelmed their boat two miles from Fanadik. They swam through the night to get to shore where they waited three days to be rescued from the island, hundreds of miles north of Papua New Guinea.

help palm