Two sailors were rescued from a deserted island in Chuuk, Micronesia, thanks to an SOS sign they had left in the sand. The sign, and the wrecked men near it, were discovered last Friday from a U.S. Army Boeing P-8 Poseidon patrol plane, which had received a message from a British Mariner about signal lights it had seen on the island.
The aircraft's pilots immediately notified the Guam Sector Coast Guard, which sent a boat to bring the wreckage to Nomvin Atoll.
The 18-foot boat was reported missing on August 19.
British Mariner sailors spotted signal lights on the uninhabited island on August 24. The vessel was connected to AMVER - the Automated Vessel Traffic Information System for Search and Rescue - and participated in the search for the missing.
During the seven-day search operation, the Guam Sector Coast Guard coordinated 14 participating AMVER vessels, two aircraft and one police patrol boat. They surveyed a total of 16,571 square miles.
