Two fishermen rescued from life raft after boat sinks off Queensland

About 4am, the helicopter crews spotted the tiny life raft in the open water.

“The fishermen had flares and a beacon, which enabled us to fly straight to them using a signal homer in the aircraft and night-vision equipment,” RACQ LifeFlight Rescue aircrew officer Chris Jowsey said.

The LifeFlight crew winched a radio device down to the raft to enable the fishermen to speak with rescuers because their mobile phone had died.

The helicopters stayed with the men until the Volunteer Marine Rescue vessel reached them a short time later and they were taken on board.

Both men were assessed by the VMR crew but had only suffered minor scratches. They were taken back to Bundaberg, where they were again assessed by paramedics.