‘We Need a Aircraft to Locate Them’: 13-Year-Old’s Distress Call to Rescue Family Adrift Off Down Under Coast Disclosed

“We ended up adrift out there,” a 13-year-old boy tells the emergency operator, following a swim four kilometres in treacherous, the sea and sprinting two kilometres to secure help for his household.

The call taker inquires how long has gone by since he started out.

“[It] was a very long time ago … I think they’re a long way from land. I think we require a rescue aircraft to locate them,” he states.

Authorities have made public the recorded plea made in recent weeks after the teen left his family drifting at sea off the WA coast to find rescuers.

His demeanour remains lucid and collected, even as he details his worry for his family members.

“I don’t know what their condition is right now, and I’m extremely frightened,” he confides in the operator.

“Mum said to find rescue … We were in grave peril.”

The Harrowing Ordeal

The holidaymakers had been carried four kilometres out to sea in stormy conditions while enjoying water sports.

His mum asked him to take his kayak and get assistance, so the youth set off, abandoning first his waterlogged vessel then his bulky flotation device to swim the distance.

After reaching land – following a four-hour swim – he sprinted for 1.25 miles to get to a cell phone.

“Hello, my name is Austin … I have two siblings, Beau and Grace. Beau is 12 and Grace is eight,” he tells the call handler.

“I’m positioned on the beach right now, and I have to also mention – I think I need an ambulance because I think I have a dangerously low body temperature … I’m really, I’m completely exhausted. I have sunstroke, and I feel like I’m about to pass out.”

A Vacation Gone Wrong

The group was on a break in Quindalup, two hundred kilometres south of Perth. They began their trip from Geographe Bay around 10am on a Friday in late January.

The mother later described that they were enjoying themselves when the young ones “drifted further than intended”. The wind picked up, they were separated from their equipment, and started floating away.

“It pretty much all went wrong very, very quickly,” she remarked.

The parent also spoke of having to make “a terribly difficult call” to ask her son to swim ashore.

“I knew he was the strongest and he had the ability to succeed,” she commented.

The Search Operation

The youth described being “completely out of breath”.

“I just continued swimming, I do the breaststroke, I do front crawl, I do elementary backstroke,” he recalled.

The distress call was made at approximately 6pm.

At around 8.30pm, ten hours after they first departed, the group were found and brought to safety. They had drifted about fourteen kilometres out to sea.

The emergency call was shared with the family’s permission.

A forward commander who managed the rescue mission said the family was in an “extremely dire situation”.

“They were in real trouble, and time was of the essence given how much time they had been in the water and with daylight fading.

“What the boy did was incredibly brave. His bravery and courage in those conditions were exceptional, and his actions were pivotal in bringing about a positive result.”

The officer also commended how the teenager effectively communicated critical information.

When asked to describe the boards for the search crew, the boy said: “They were green and white.”

“And I’m not sure if it’s there, but they had this fishing rod, and there was a catch on the line. Since we managed to catch a fish.”