A 27-YEAR-OLD pregnant woman and her partner were plucked from a remote part of the Gibson Desert in a miraculous Outback rescue after the couple became stranded.
The woman and the man, 32, were driving on a stretch of dirt road when their 4WD became heavily bogged in sand.
They were 300km northwest of the tiny town of Warburton, Western Australia.
Lying 1600km northwest of Perth and 2700km south of Darwin, it is part of an extremely isolated indigenous community in the vast Gibson Desert.
Facing temperatures of 32C, the couple activated a Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) from their Toyota Landcruiser.
At about 11.30am on Friday the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) detected the distress signal and advised Warburton Police.
A massive search operation was launched involving a Goldfield Air Services plane, AMSA Challenger aircraft and a long range search and rescue helicopter dispatched from Broome.
The couple’s PLB was registered to the Darwin couple whose family police contacted to determine how many people were stranded.
Late on Friday afternoon the Goldfield plane, which had flown 900km from Kalgoorlie, spotted the couple who had camped by their car.
On Saturday morning the AMSA Challenger flew over the site and dropped an emergency kit which contained a satellite phone.
The long-range helicopter flying from Broome reached the site on Saturday at 11.45am Warburton time and landed.
The couple were flown back to Broome and four hours later were admitted to hospital.
Police said they were in good health and have since been released.
Western Australian Police said on Facebook that “the rapid response was possible due to the fact the people were carrying a GPS-based PLB, which not only alerted us to their situation, but also told us where they were.
“Their PLB was registered, which meant we were able to contact a family member and establish how many people were on the trip, which is extremely important in assessing the urgency of the situation.
“In this instance the pair had become stranded after their vehicle became heavily bogged.”
Online Source: news.com.au
