Four local anglers rescued off Pulau Tiga after 20 hours adrift

LABUAN: Four anglers who went adrift at sea for more than 20 hours when their boat engine failed, were rescued on Sunday by the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) off Pulau Tiga.
They arrived at the Labuan maritime jetty at 12.10am on Monday.
The anglers identified as Ali @ Cherlie M Yussof, 62, Jamhari Bujang, 54, Wilfred Balang Singa, 38, and Amri Ahmad Astor, 33, had left Pohon Batu Labuan around 4.10pm on Saturday.
However, their fishing boat developed technical trouble around 10.30pm after being hit by huge waves and heavy rain, causing the boat to drift off to Pulau Tiga.
Failing to fix the engine problem, the men subsequently contacted family members who alerted the agency at 10am (Sunday).
Labuan MMEA operations deputy director, maritime commander Nor Bakari Abu Bakar said the search and rescue began at noon (Sunday) following a distress call by the anglers' family members.
He said MMEA managed to track down the men six hours later, using the global positioning system (GPS) tracker.
Meanwhile, Jamhari was immediately sent to Labuan Nucleus Hospital after having high blood pressure.
"We never expected our weekend fishing to turn this way as we had checked the engine and it was fine. This is just unforeseen ... we thank the agency for the rescue," Ali said. — Bernama