The man said he’s “happy to be alive and well” following the daunting rescue<\/p>\n\n
A missing kayaker was forced to stay overnight on a sandbank off Australia’s southern coast before a helicopter rescued him, leaving his wife grateful for his survival of the harrowing ordeal.<\/p>\n
“She’s happy I’m alive, alright, and [asked me] what happened,” Goran Radic, 73, told reporters of the phone call he made to his partner on Wednesday, March 18, after he was located during an extensive search and rescue operation, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation<\/a> (ABC).\u00a0<\/p>\n The day before, on Tuesday, March 17, concerned relatives notified authorities that a man in his 70s was missing after he failed to return from a kayaking trip off Middle Beach, a small town in South Australia, the South Australia Police said in a statement<\/a>. During that trip, Radic was paddling about 25 miles north of Adelaide, where he\u2019d gone numerous times before, when he became disoriented, the ABC reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe moment I didn’t see entrance into the channel, I knew something is different,” he told the outlet. He \u201cdidn\u2019t panic,\u201d though he\u2019d left his phone in his car.\u00a0<\/p>\n Following an alert that the elderly man was missing, police immediately launched a multi-agency search but didn\u2019t locate him that night, authorities said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Radic attempted to paddle to St Kilda, which is approximately 12 miles south of Middle Beach, according to the ABC. Unable to locate the coastal hamlet, the kayaker turned back and spent the night on a sandbank.<\/p>\n “I’ve seen rescue helicopter sometime in the night, and they missed me,\u201d said Radic, who was fortunately wearing a life jacket, the outlet reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n According to police, the search started up again on Wednesday morning. By 8:30 a.m. local time, the missing kayaker was spotted by a police helicopter just over a mile south of Middle Beach.\u00a0<\/p>\n Clinton Daniels of the SA Ambulance Service Special Operations told the ABC that the rescue team was able to land the helicopter on a sandbank.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe were able to land on a bank and actually get him to walk across to the aircraft and [he] climbed in,” Daniels told the outlet.\u00a0<\/p>\n “He had appropriate clothing and stayed up all night waiting for daylight and possibly help,\u201d the first responder continued of Radic. \u201cHe’s had a fairly decent ordeal, but he’s doing quite well.”<\/p>\n In their statement, police said that the missing man was \u201cdeemed in good health,\u201d and that his kayak would be recovered.\u00a0<\/p>\n