Cellular phone saves lives
PA Auckland A cellular telephone normally used to made business calls from a car, saved the lives of four yachtsmen when their boat sank near Auckland on Saturday. A crewmap James Humaha, grabbed the phone, the only communication equipment on the nine-metre yacht Metric Measure, and dialled tolls just as the yacht began to sink in a three metre' swell between Rangitoto Island and Tiritiri Island.
After giving the position, Mr Humaha said: “The boat’s sinking now. We’re going into the dinghy.” Dropping the phone overboard, Mr Humaha jumped into the dinghy with the skipper Anthony Round, and crew, Mark Arnold and Dick McGregor, all of Thames. But within seconds the dinghy was swamped and the four clung to the hull for 90 minutes, until they were rescued by a helicopter, the police launch
Deodar and coastguard vessel Kailanui. With the horizon just a blur of mist and sea, the helicopter pilot, Max Donnelly, hovered 20m above the four in 30-knot winds, guided by his winch operator, Warren Smith, of Pakuranga. Swinging wildly from, side to side, Messrs Humaha and Arnold were winched up. Messrs McGregor and Round stayed with the dinghy hull until picked up by the Kailanui.
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Press, 28 November 1988, Page 7
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203Cellular phone saves lives Press, 28 November 1988, Page 7
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