We Require a Helicopter to Search For Them’: Teenager’s Distress Call to Rescue Loved Ones Stranded Off Down Under Coast Unveiled

“We ended up adrift out there,” young Austin Appelbee explains to the triple-zero dispatcher, having swum four kilometres in choppy, open water and jogging two kilometres to secure help for his kin.

The operator asks how long has passed since he started out.

“[It] was quite some time back … I think they’re far offshore. I think we need a rescue aircraft to locate them,” he reports.

Authorities have released the distress call made in recent weeks after the boy departed from his family adrift at sea off the West Australian coast to seek assistance.

His voice remains clear and calm, even as he voices his worry for his kin.

“I have no idea about what their condition is right now, and I’m really scared,” he tells the operator.

“Mum said go get help … We were in grave peril.”

The Perilous Situation

The mother and children had been carried 4km out to sea in rough conditions while enjoying water sports.

His mother urged him to take his kayak and locate rescue, so the teenager commenced, ditching first his failing kayak then his bulky flotation device to make the journey by swimming.

After making it to shore – after an extensive period – he ran for 2km to access a phone.

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

“I’m located on the beach right now, and I have to also add – I think I need an paramedic because I think I have a dangerously low body temperature … I’m really, I’m utterly fatigued. I have heatstroke, and I feel like I’m about to collapse.”

A Getaway in Peril

The holidaymakers was on a break in Quindalup, 125 miles south of Perth. They began their trip from Geographe Bay around 10am on a Friday in late January.

The parent later explained that they were having fun when the children “drifted further than intended”. The breeze strengthened, they were separated from their equipment, and started floating away.

“It kind of all went wrong very, very quickly,” she noted.

The parent also described having to make “one of the hardest decisions” to ask her son to swim to land.

“I knew he was the best swimmer and he had the ability to succeed,” she said.

The Successful Mission

The youth described being “very puffed out”.

“I just pressed on, I do the breaststroke, I do freestyle, I do survival backstroke,” he recalled.

The distress call was made at around 6pm.

At roughly 8.30pm, a full ten hours after they first set out, the family were spotted and rescued. They had floated about fourteen kilometres out to sea.

The recording was released with the family’s permission.

A senior officer who managed the operation said the family was in an “extremely dire situation”.

“They were in genuine danger, and time was absolutely critical given how much time they had been in the water and with daylight fading.

“What the teenager did was nothing short of extraordinary. His fortitude and resolve in those conditions were exceptional, and his actions were instrumental in bringing about a successful outcome.”

The sergeant also praised how the youth calmly conveyed vital details.

When asked to identify the paddleboards for the search crew, the boy responded: “They were a green and white colour.”

“And I’m not sure if it’s still on, but they had this fishing line, and there was a fish hooked. As we caught one.”