{"id":388771,"date":"2026-04-20T13:39:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T13:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/388771\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T13:39:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T13:39:10","slug":"queensland-divers-saved-after-drifting-for-20-hours-in-rough-waters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/388771\/","title":{"rendered":"Queensland divers saved after drifting for 20 hours in rough waters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two divers have been found alive and well after drifting for 20 hours in tough water conditions. <\/p>\n

The pair, in their 40s, were spotted by a rescue jet on Sunday, more than 25km south of their dive site off North Stradbroke Island.<\/p>\n

Acting Sergeant Matt Boswell said it was a relief to find the two men safe and well. <\/p>\n

“It’s a great outcome,” the officer in charge of the Dunwich Police Station told reporters.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The pair were spotted more than 25km south of their dive site off North Stradbroke Island. (Source: Queensland Police Service) (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n

The 45-year-old from the Brisbane area and 43-year-old from the Gold Coast were found about 4km off Main Beach.<\/p>\n

Police and emergency services were alerted on Saturday morning when the pair failed to return to the boat at the scheduled time.<\/p>\n

They were finally spotted by a search and rescue jet at about 7am on Sunday.<\/p>\n

The aircraft dropped a life raft before water police arrived and a helicopter airlifted them to safety.<\/p>\n

The two men were taken to the Gold Coast University Hospital and have since returned home. <\/p>\n

Acting Sergeant Boswell said the men were battling tough conditions overnight.<\/p>\n

“Water conditions were pretty rough,” he said.<\/p>\n

“And obviously, just being out in the ocean for so long, the exposure.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two divers have been found alive and well after drifting for 20 hours in tough water conditions. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388772,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[85,273,111,139,69,147],"class_list":{"0":"post-388771","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-environment","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz","13":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}