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Stranded boat. This oceanic rowboat was found on the beach on Kinapusan Island in Tawi-Tawi on April 24, 2020, near a corpse suspected of being adventurer Ruihan Yu, who had been missing since late November 2019. Photo of AFP Mindanao Occidental Command
MANILA, Philippines – A man’s headless body and what appears to be his ocean rowboat were found on a beach in Tawi-Tawi on April 24, and after an investigation, the army in western Mindanao said that the man could be a Chinese adventurer who had been reported missing for almost 5 months.
A resident found the body off the coast of Kinapusan Island, Barangay Nusa-Nusa, South Ubian, Tawi-Tawi, and immediately reported it to the 36th Marine Company, Marine Squad 6 Landing Team stationed locally.
Navy soldiers from the Bentawlan detachment of the battalion, municipal police and barangay rescuers went to the site and found the decapitated body in a blue diving suit lying on a rock on the shoreline, said Army Commander Tawi-Tawi of the Army Joint Task Force, Colonel Arturo Rojas. a press release on Friday May 1.
Nearby, respondents also found an oceanic rowboat approximately 24 feet long, with red and blue stripes and the number 88 on its hull.
The body was decomposing, and those who responded barangay immediately buried it in the same area. The rowboat was taken to the South Ubian Municipal Hall in Barangay Bengkolan for “proper disposal,” said the Philippine Armed Forces (AFP) Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom).
Authorities suspect that the body and rowboat floated in the current from the Celebes Sea until they were washed ashore on the island of Kinapusan.
The 2nd Marine Corps Brigade contacted nearby local governments, as well as their Malaysian and Indonesian counterparts, and their investigation pointed to recent posts on Chinese citizen Ruihan Yu, who in late 2019 had proposed paddle alone across the Pacific. Ocean of the west coast of the United States.
The boat found on the island matched the photos of Yu’s boat in the publications, including the December 6, 2019 edition of the Marshall Islands Journal.
Adventurer in distress
On November 27, 2019, Yu made a distress call from 360 nautical miles northeast of Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, according to a Facebook post by his friend Lia Ditton. Through a satellite phone call, the US Coast Guard. USA He learned from Yu that “his ship capsized, that he had lost all survival gear, including a life jacket, and that he was clinging to the hull of his ship. He reported that the engine was flooding and that the boat was sinking lower in the water. “
The United States Coast Guard dispatched a C-130 aircraft from Honolulu, Hawaii to rescue Yu, and arrived and saw him more than 7 hours later. The crew launched a life raft for Yu, but the plane had to be refueled immediately. When he returned to the area, the crew saw the life raft, but not Yu or his rowboat.
The rescuers returned to the area on November 28 and 29, but only saw the boat and the life raft, not Yu.
The ship was last seen from the air at 3:20 p.m. on November 30, 2019 off the Marshall Islands, north of Taongi Atoll, AFP Westmincom said. The search was canceled at sunset.
It was not Yu’s first attempt to sail solo across the Pacific. In 2017, he left San Francisco, California, for Australia, but his helm was damaged when he left Hawaii. The United States Coast Guard in Honolulu then rescued him.
“We will provide the necessary assistance to Mr. Ruihan Yu’s family if they want to go to Tawi-Tawi to verify and verify if he really is Ruihan’s corpse,” said AFP Westmincom Lt. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana, who guaranteed the safety of Yu’s family if they decide to visit her. – Rappler.com
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