
Searches Span Continents After Marine Vanishes Off California and Fisherman Found Adrift in Indonesia
Multiple nations mounted operations Sunday after a US Marine was lost at sea during training, a fisherman survived by clinging to a cooler lid in the Natuna Sea, and swimmers disappeared in Sweden and Switzerland.
A US Marine went missing from the amphibious transport dock USS Anchorage during a night-time exercise off Southern California on Thursday, triggering a multi-agency search that covered roughly 2,400 square miles and involved at least 3 surface ships and 12 aircraft, according to US Navy statements. By Friday evening the mission had shifted from rescue to recovery, officials said. The Marine’s identity is being withheld pending notification of next of kin, and no details of the disappearance have been disclosed. It is the second such US operation in six weeks: in May the remains of two Army soldiers were recovered after they went missing during exercises in Morocco.
In the Natuna Sea, a search-and-rescue team found a crew member alive on Sunday after the cargo vessel KM Ocean Three failed to arrive at its destination in West Kalimantan. Abdul Rahman, head of the Natuna SAR office, confirmed that the captain, Wan Zaidan, 47, was discovered floating and holding onto a yellow fiber cooler box lid at coordinates 3°40.299’N 108°20.947’E. The crew had been reduced to three men after one originally listed did not sail; the two remaining members, identified as Yoga and Arip, are still missing and are thought to have been carried north by currents. A joint team involving the navy and fisheries ministry continued searching on Sunday.
European authorities separately conducted intensive searches after two men were swept away in inland waters. On Sweden’s west coast, police in Lysekil requested military support on Sunday to locate a man in his 40s last seen near Grundsund around 01:00 that night. Helicopters, drones, dog patrols and maritime units were deployed, with no suspicion of a crime. In the Swiss canton of Aargau, a 28‑year‑old Pakistani national jumped from the Mülimatt bridge over the Aare in Windisch on Saturday evening, surfaced briefly shouting for help, then disappeared. Police and a rescue helicopter found no trace, and the search resumed on Sunday. The weekend also saw fatal drownings on the Rhine in Möhlin and Basel, and a search for a 20‑year‑old man in the Reuss.
All operations remained active on Sunday evening. The Indonesian crewman’s survival offers a rare bright spot; the two other missing men aboard KM Ocean Three were still being sought, while the search for the Marine off San Diego had become a recovery mission. No further statements on the European disappearances had been issued by police press offices, and authorities in each country said investigations were ongoing.
How the same story is told elsewhere.
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A fisherman from the missing vessel KM Ocean Three was found alive drifting in Natuna waters, clinging to a fiber cooler lid. Search and rescue teams located him after days of survival at sea, in a remarkable story of endurance with minimal means.
Several water-related missing person cases unfolded across Europe: a man vanished in Sweden during the night, a swimmer disappeared in a German quarry lake, and a young man was swept away by a Swiss river. Massive search operations involving helicopters, drones, and rescue teams are ongoing in all three locations.
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