3 men stranded on a Pacific island were rescued by spelling 'help'
with palm leaves

The U.S. Coast Guard and Navy were able to successfully rescue three
sailors who were stranded on a small Pacific island for over a week,
after they spelled "help" in the sand with palm tree leaves.

The three men, all in their 40s, left Easter Sunday on a 20-foot skiff
from Polowat to Pikelot (both places are two small Pacific islands
that make up the Micronesia archipelago), the Coast Guard said.
...
...
Aircraft crews deployed a radio and other supplies down, and the men
said they had food and water, were in good health and had their boat,
though it was damaged. On Tuesday, the men were returned to Polowat.

https://www.npr.org/2024/04/12/1244265417/men-rescued-island-leaves-coast-guard

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On 2024-04-12, JAB <here@is.invalid> wrote:

3 men stranded on a Pacific island were rescued by spelling 'help'
with palm leaves

It's a cool story until you start thinking about how it's being told.

I'm curious about the people, forces, planes, boats, whatever that went
into the rescue. The 12 or so palm fronds, yawn, that's not the most
important part.

I looked up the island on Google Earth. It's extremely isolated.

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On 13 Apr 2024 03:43:06 GMT, Retrograde <fungus@amongus.com.invalid>
wrote:

It's a cool story until you start
thinking about how it's being told.

Not enough details, but it appears Idiots R US were at fault.

It appears they did not have an Emergency Distress Beacon https://www.sarsat.noaa.gov/emergency-406-beacons/

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