“ Help ”, translated, “help”. This is the message written in large letters with palm leaves on a beach by three castaways, lost on a desert island in the Pacific Ocean. The three - waiting for help for a week - entrusted their fate to luck, in the hope of being seen. The writing on the white sand of a Micronesian atoll was noticed by the US Coast Guard, who then alerted the emergency services.

The islet where the sailors were stranded is called Pikelot, and is a tiny uninhabited island in the Caroline Islands, in the middle of the Pacific, annexed to the Federated States of Micronesia. They were spotted on Sunday by a plane flying over the area which dropped a radio at them to establish communications. The sailors confirmed that they were in good health, that they had access to food and water and expressed their desire to get help to return to Polowat, the islet from which they left, 185 kilometers away.

A similar misadventure happened in August 2020, when three Micronesian sailors stranded on the same island were rescued thanks to some Australian and American warplanes. On the beach they had spotted a gigantic "SOS", written on the ground.

(Unioneonline/vf)

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