With Outback temperatures expected to soar, the decision has apparently been made to use a police helicopter to rescue a family have been stranded in the Simpson Desert since late last week.
Perth couple Ori and Lindsey Zavros, and their two young children Zane and Zoe, got stuck when their customised 4WD campervan became bogged following torrential rain.
SA Police told the ABC that a helicopter was on its way to rescue the family from the remote location in South Australia’s far north.
The helicopter left Port Augusta and is expected to reach the scene — about 150 kilometres north-east of Oodnadatta — in the next few hours.
Their van will be left in place, police said.
Ori’s mother, Theo Zavros, said the family had “had enough” of being stuck in the desert and having to conserve water ahead of forecast hot weather.
She said everyone involved in the rescue operation had been “brilliant”.
“We are thrilled — thrilled to bits — that they are going to be finally rescued,” Ms Zavros told the ABC.
Oodnadatta Pink Roadhouse owner Peter Moore said he had been informed by local police early this morning that a retrieval operation was underway.
“It’s landing here, refuelling, going into the desert to pick up the stranded family and then take them back down south,” he told the ABC. “Oodnadatta is still the hottest, driest town in Australia … there’s an airstrip not that far away but I would imagine the chopper would land right near them.”
The family has a satellite phone, and the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) on Sunday conducted a second aerial drop of emergency supplies.
