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Castaways Rescued After Writing Out Enormous 'SOS' In The Sand

Two people were stranded on a Pacific desert island for a week.
US Embassy Kolonia

Two boaters marooned on a desert Pacific Island were rescued after they wrote a gigantic “SOS” plea for help in the sand.

Linus and Sabina Jack, who are both in their 50s, were stranded on the uninhabited Micronesian island of East Fayu for more than seven days before being saved Friday, reports the BBC.

They’d departed from Weno Island on board an 18-foot boat on Aug. 17, with “limited supplies and no emergency equipment,” according to a U.S. Coast Guard statement.

They were scheduled to arrive on nearby Tamtam Island the following day. But they never reached their destination.

The full circumstances behind their stranding have not yet been revealed, nor have their nationalities.

But the U.S. Coast Guard’s command center in Guam revealed that it initiated a search operation for the pair on Aug. 19 after receiving notification their vessel was missing.

Aircraft crews and patrol boats combed a total area of 16,571 square miles before a passing ship noticed flashing lights coming from the island on Wednesday.

The U.S. Navy scrambled a P-8A Poseidon aircraft to investigate the sighting, and airmen located the pair after spotting their makeshift sign on the beach.

A Coast Guard boat picked them up Friday and transferred them to Nomwin Atoll, from where the U.S. Embassy of Kolonia says they are now “waiting for a ship to take them home.”

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