HOWARD IRVING HOLDSWORTH rescued 12 Dec 2003
 

Howard Irving Holdsworth rescued from NW Australian beach, 12 Dec 2003

Man rescued by SOS in sand

12 December 2003

The SOS message on the beach.
Howard Holdsworth stranded
on Australian beach, Dec 2003

A West Yorkshire tourist has been rescued from a remote Australian beach after an aircraft saw an SOS message scraped in the sand.

Howard Holdsworth, from Halifax, had been stranded on the beach for three days after his 4X4 vehicle became bogged down in soft sand.

His water supply was dangerously low when he was eventually picked up by rescue crews. The Coastwatch aircraft on a routine patrol spotted the message and stranded vehicle at Cape Bertholet, 46 miles north of Broome - halfway between Perth and Darwin. The aircraft made a low pass to check the situation and observers saw Mr Holdsworth waving at them.

The Customs National Surveillance Centre in Canberra contacted the police in Broome and the State Emergency Service who started a rescue operation. Mr Holdsworth, whose family owns a transport upholstery company, had been travelling alone and gone beyond his intended destination before realising he was lost.

He said the place where he became stuck was "absolutely gorgeous" but admitted he had become frightened during the incident.

Howard Holdsworth stranded
on Australian beach, Dec 2003
pictured from the rescue aircraft

He had been staying with friends in Western Australia, but they had not expected him to return until Friday and so did not raise an alarm.

A keen naturalist, Mr Holdsworth said he had a good knowledge of bush skills, but said it he found it hard to use them in the heat.

"It's actually quite hard to think your way out of situations in those kinds of temperatures," he said. "During the day I kept myself in the shade, using as little energy as possible, and I worked through the night trying to dig the vehicle out.

"I must have shifted tonnes of sand, absolutely tonnes." He had made the SOS sign in wet sand by shuffling his feet below the high-tide line to indicate it had been written recently. "That's what saved me, because that's exactly what the Coastwatch people noticed."

Dina M Holdsworth, Dec 2003

Mr Holdsworth will return to Halifax next year, but says he will stick to the beaten track until then.

His mother Dina told BBC Radio Leeds she did not know her son was missing until somebody phoned to say he had been rescued.
"Howard doesn't get into scrapes, he avoids them," she said.
"He likes to be well organised and safe and it's unusual for him to be unsafe.
"He isn't a person who goes off without thinking."