12 Jul 2011

Group of Papua New Guineans missing at sea for a week reunited with family

1:36 pm on 12 July 2011

A group of 15 people missing at sea off Papua New Guinea's New Britain island for a week has been found safe and well.

They came ashore on a remote island on Monday and were re-united with family early today.

The disaster management co-ordinator for East New Britain, Allan Pinia, says once the group came ashore the skipper of the vessel was able to call relatives to give their location.

"They were heading from West New Britain, heading towards East New Britain. On the way they ran out of fuel and they had drifted. They were drifting since Monday [July 4th] until yesterday [July 11th]. They're OK they're fine, but they're weak because there was no food, they didn't have enough food on them, and water."