We Must Have a Helicopter to Locate Them’: Adolescent’s Urgent Plea to Save Family Lost Off Australian Coast Revealed

“We became disoriented out there,” young Austin Appelbee explains to the triple-zero dispatcher, after swimming 4km in choppy, open ocean and sprinting 1.25 miles to summon rescue for his kin.

The call taker inquires how long has gone by since he began.

“[It] was ages past … I think they’re kilometres out to sea. I think we must get a rescue aircraft to locate them,” he reports.

Authorities have disclosed the distress call made previously after the teen departed from his family drifting at sea off the WA coast to seek assistance.

His voice remains lucid and collected, even as he expresses his worry for his kin.

“I am unsure of what their status is right now, and I’m terrified,” he tells the person on the line.

“Mum said go get help … We were in serious danger.”

The Dangerous Incident

The holidaymakers had been pulled four kilometres out to sea in treacherous conditions while enjoying water sports.

His mother asked him to take his kayak and get assistance, so the youth commenced, abandoning first his failing kayak then his cumbersome lifejacket to swim the distance.

After making it to shore – after an extensive period – he sprinted for 1.25 miles to get to a phone.

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

“I’m positioned on the beach right now, and I have to also explain – I think I need an paramedic because I think I have hypothermia … I’m really, I’m completely exhausted. I have heatstroke, and I feel like I’m about to collapse.”

A Getaway in Peril

The group was on a break in Quindalup, 200km south of Perth. They began their trip from Geographe Bay around 10am on a Friday in late January.

The mother later described that they were enjoying themselves when the kids “drifted further than intended”. The wind picked up, they dropped their paddles, and started floating away.

“It kind of all turned bad very, very quickly,” she noted.

The parent also spoke of having to make “an incredibly tough choice” to instruct her son to make the swim for help.

“I knew he was the most capable and he had the ability to succeed,” she stated.

The Search Operation

The boy described being “extremely winded”.

“I just keep swimming, I do the breaststroke, I do freestyle, I do elementary backstroke,” he recalled.

The distress call was made at around 6pm.

At roughly 8.30pm, many hours after they first departed, the group were found and brought to safety. They had floated about 9 miles out to sea.

The audio was released with the family’s permission.

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

“They were in real trouble, and time was extremely pressing given how long they had been in the water and with light running out.

“What the boy did was truly remarkable. His heroic actions in those conditions were exceptional, and his actions were instrumental in bringing about a successful outcome.”

The officer also highlighted how the boy calmly conveyed vital details.

When asked to identify the paddleboards for the rescue team, the youth replied: “They were green and white.”

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