TOWNSVILLE, Australia, Nov. 7 (UPI) — Rescuers compared the search to finding a “needle in a haystack” after rescuing a scuba diver missing for more than 14 hours off the north coast of Australia on Monday.
The 68-year-man lost at sea off the north Queensland on Sunday was found more than 30 nautical miles east of where he went missing, the Queensland police said.
The unidentified man was diving at the SS Yongala wreck dive site, 10.7 nautical miles off Cape Bowling Green, on Sunday afternoon but failed to return.
Queensland Air Rescue Officer Alan Griffiths had been searching for the missing man for 90 minutes in a helicopter and was about to head back to the base when he noticed him at 11 a.m.
“There was a sense of urgency because we were heading back for fuel, but we wouldn’t have been back for an hour,” Griffiths said to ABC News in Australia. “I said to him, ‘G’day mate, do you want a lift?'”
The man was not using his personal locator beacon.
“He’s gone by himself, which is a bit naughty,” Griffiths said. “He jumped in the water from his boat and then realized the current was so strong and he simply couldn’t get back.”
A massive air and sea search was conducted after a friend who knew the man’s dive plans alerted police about 6:45 p.m. Sunday.
“It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack,” Acting Inspector Graeme Patterson told reporters.
The diver saw three helicopters and a plane searching for him earlier in the morning, Griffith said.
“He was very, very lucky,” Griffiths said. “He said to me ‘you need to buy a lottery ticket’, and I said ‘No, you need to buy a lottery ticket.”
The diver was transported to hospital for assessment and his boat was being towed back to the Water Police base in Townsville.
