SANDAKAN: A Royal Navy Malaysia (RMN) vessel KD Laksamana Tan Pusmah came to the rescue of two fishermen who were stranded in Langkayan Island waters on Wednesday.
Reportedly, the two fishermen from Berhala Island, Moyong Aminuddin, 75, and Holdin Abduraham, 34, became stranded when their 19 meters long boat suffered an engine failure.
The two fishermen had been stranded for about ten hours after their boat had an engine failure at around 7 am, not long after they departed from Berhala Island.
Commanding officer of KD Laksamana Tan Pusmah, Commander Mohamad Zamri Ismail, said the naval vessel was on its way to Sandakan from Kota Kinabalu when they encountered the fishermen.
He said one of the naval officer saw the emergency signal from the fishermen’s boat which was about two kilometres away from the naval vessel at around 3.15pm.
“The fishermen were seen waving their shirt frantically and when approached closer, we noticed that the boat bearing a local registration. From our inspection, we found the boat propeller shaft was broken and there was an gaping hole on the wall of its machinery room that caused the boat to be filled with sea water,” he said.
The fishermen’s boat was then towed by the naval vessel back to Sandakan reaching at the naval base of KD Sri Sandakan at around 9 pm.