AP News, April 12th, 2007
A Navy helicopter airlifted more than 20 people off a fishing boat that struck a reef while ferrying a medical team to help tsunami victims in the Solomon Islands, an official said Friday.
The Taiwanese boat hit the reef off the western town of Gizo on Thursday night after delivering aid supplies to outlying islands, said Taiwan's ambassador to the Solomon Islands, George Chan.
"The U.S. helicopter helped us to lift the Red Cross workers and our medical team," Chan told The Associated Press. "I was told they were safely evacuated."
Seventeen Red Cross workers from New Zealand and the Solomons, Taiwanese medical workers, two patients and a crew member whose back was injured were airlifted, he said. Another 13 crew were still on the grounded vessel.
An offshore magnitude-8.1 earthquake sent a tsunami crashing into the Solomon coast on April 2. At least 39 people were killed and 7,000 were left homeless. Many are living in squalid hillside camps.
The helicopter was from the Navy supply ship USS Frederick W. Stockton, which was assisting with tsunami relief in Munda, a town in the Solomon Islands' Western Province, Chan said.
Chan said the reef hit by the boat may have been uncharted or may have been thrown up by the earthquake.
Police warned "all ships in the Western Province to be extremely careful of reefs which may have moved or risen during the recent earthquake."
Two "police vessels made a strong effort to tow the trawler off the reef but snapped three tow lines during the attempt," police said.
