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Boat accident in CroatiaAccident between the islands of Pag and Rab - four holidaymakers rescued

Leonie Meyer

 · 03.07.2023

Stranded on a rocky cliff: The mountain rescue team was able to rescue the four men in time
Photo: HGSS - Hrvatska Gorska Služba Spašavanja
Four German holidaymakers survived a boating accident off the Croatian coast. On the way back, the boat's engine failed and a strong storm broke out. By a stroke of luck, mountain rescue was called out - the investigation is still ongoing

A boat trip on the Croatian Adriatic coast turned into a life-threatening event for four German holidaymakers from Bavaria. On Saturday (24 June), the group decided to go on a day trip by motorboat from the island of Rab to the island of Pag. Several media outlets, including RTL, Focus and t-onlinereported on this.

After dinner in the restaurant, the men set off at around 10 p.m. for the return journey to Rab, which should normally only take around 30 minutes. However, the boat's engine suddenly failed and a storm came up. The bora storm can reach high speeds in Croatia.

Emergency call made before the boat filled up with water

The situation quickly became critical and one of the men made an emergency call before the boat filled up with water. In view of the imminent danger, two men (38, 37) decided to jump into the water and swim through the choppy Adriatic. They reached an inaccessible rocky coast on Pag and injured themselves badly on the sharp rocks.

Meanwhile, the other two men (56, 32) were left behind on the sinking boat. They too were later stranded on a rocky coast and had to wait for help.

Boating accident with consequences

The men were in a life-threatening situation: they were exhausted, thirsty and further weakened by their injuries on the rocks.

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The mountain rescue team HGSS (Hrvatska gorska služba spašavanja) was finally alerted via the location app on one of the men's mobile phones, which was still working despite everything. The rescue teams travelled to the rocky coast on Pag and were able to rescue two of the four men.

Thanks to the location data from the second mobile phone that made the emergency call, the mountain rescue team also managed to find the other two men, who had taken refuge in a nearby holiday home. From there, they were taken to the police. The rescue operation took a total of 14 hours.

The "miracle of Pag", as locals call the incident, fortunately ended without any fatalities. The exact causes of the engine failure and the question of whether the weather conditions were assessed appropriately are currently being investigated.

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Leonie Meyer

Leonie Meyer

Editor News & Panorama

Leonie Meyer was born in Detmold in 1997. The passion for boating runs in her family: every year they spend their summer holidays in Croatia with their boat. Even as a child, she leafed through her father's BOOTE magazine.

After training as a design assistant at school, she moved to Magdeburg to study International Journalism. During this time, she completed an internship abroad at a German daily newspaper in Greece and an internship at BOOTE magazine. After graduating with a BA (2020), Leonie did a graduate internship in Mallorca. Her last stop was a cross-media traineeship at a daily newspaper in OWL. Leonie Meyer has been working as an editor in the watersports digital editorial team since 2023 and turned her passion into a career.

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