What Happened?
A 19-year-old Indonesian man was rescued after being stranded in the Pacific Ocean for 49 days.
The man, Aldi Novel Adilang, worked as a caretaker of a wooden fishing hut 77 miles off the coast of Indonesia, NPR reported.
On July 14, the hut’s anchor line snapped due to strong winds, which sent Adilang drifting in the ocean for seven weeks.
“I was on the raft for one month and 18 days. My food ran out after the first week,” Adilang told ABC News. “I had to soak my clothes in the sea, then I squeezed and drank the water.”
A Panamanian-flagged vessel rescued Adilang near Guam on Aug. 31, about 1,200 miles from his original location, ABC News reported.
When Adilang saw the vessel, he shouted “help” and used a handheld radio to attempt to reach them. The ship passed Adilang for about a mile and then turned around to rescue him, according to ABC News.
At least ten ships passed Adilang’s hut prior to his rescue and failed to see him waving for help, according to The Jakarta Post.
The Latest
Adilang arrived in Japan on Sept. 6, and a few days later reunited with his family in North Sulawesi, an Indonesian province, NPR reported.
