The Christmas Island Rescue

A navy lieutenant described the difficulties he had to go through to save a child attached to a drowned woman when an asylum seeker boat smashed into rocks on Christmas Island.

Two boats were sent from the patrol vessel HMAS Pirie to rescue people after their craft smashed against the rocks off Christmas Island’s Rocky Point on December 15 last year. The sailors had to battle waves, wind and rain to reach the cliff where the asylum seekers’ craft smashed apart.

The inquest of death of 30 people from Iraq and Iran, and the likely deaths of 20 more people is being conducted by the West Australian Coroner Alastair.

Sub-Lieutenant Jeremy Evain said that as his boat rounded the point he saw the vessel being smashed on the rocks as people clung to it and others floated in the water, screaming for help.

He said that he had seen dead bodies in the water, including a middle-aged woman just below the surface who was attached by a line to a child in a lifejacket floating on the surface. He had to cut the line in order to rescue the child.

Sub-Lieutenant Evain said that he was forced to ignore the cries of other people and just concentrated on saving those he could.

The coxswain of the second rescue boat, Leading Seaman Jonathan West, said that there was a strong smell of diesel and fuel-soaked survivors proved difficult to grasp and pull aboard. He got as close to the cliffs as he safely could, and there he saw men with lifejackets holding women and children afloat and pushing the children towards the rescue boats.

On a return to the Pirie with 10 survivors he also noticed two men were hostile to a middle-aged Indonesian man thought to be the master of the vessel. He placed the man at the rear of the boat to defuse the situation.

Leading Seaman West counted 16 dead people in the water on a return rescue trip. He exclaimed that the dead bodies included three children and an infant too, and none of them were wearing lifejackets.

Photo by jcorrius.

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Posted by Candy Whitley on May 22 2011. Filed under World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry