KOTA KINABALU: It was a fathers instinct that kept Ali Hassan Hj Mohd Dusi and his family in high hopes that their daughter, Armella Ali Hassan, would still be alive.
For 10 days the family had never given up hope and continued to pray for the safe return of their 23-year-old daughter, the seventh of eight siblings, who was reported missing together with three others after their boat allegedly sank between Balambangan Island in Kudat and Tanjung Simpang Mengayau on May 2.
Their prayers were answered exactly on the 10th day after the incident when Ali Hassan received a call from his daughter early morning on May 12.
I received a telephone call on my mobile phone. I did not recognize the number but knew it was an international number.
Somehow I got a very strange feeling when I answered the call.
As I said: ‘Hello’, I heard a familiar but distant voice at the other end.
So I asked: ‘Is this Ella?’, and the voice replied: ‘Yes daddy, its me Ella’, said the 61-year-old father as he wiped off his tears while relating the event to the media at the Kota Kinabalu International Airport yesterday morning.
I cried in disbelief when I heard my daughters voice.
I am happy and relieved that she is okay.
I then asked her how she was doing and she told me she was fine.
She also said Vietnamese fishermen had taken good care of her and the remaining three survivors.
They (Vietnamese fishermen) served her halal food such as fish and vegetables.
She also told me that she sustained bad sunburn and that her skin was peeling off.
I told her not to worry, to stay warm and safe and the whole family would see her very soon, said Ali Hassan.
Armella or better known as Ella, was reported missing together with Spaniards David Hernandes Gasulla, 29, and Martha Miguel, 30, and Tommy Lam Lai Yin from China, 44, when they failed to arrive at Tanjung Simpang Mengayau after leaving Kampung Batu Sirih, Balambangan Island around 5.30pm on May 2.
A massive search and rescue (SAR) operation that involved the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA), the Royal Malaysian Navy, the Royal Malaysian Police Marine, the Fire and Rescue Services Department, the Malaysian Air Force, the Department of Aviation, as well as the Kudat Fishermen Association, had worked around the clock for 10 days to search for the missing four since the first day of the incident.
Ten days into the search and rescue operation with little to no hope of finding the missing four, the SAR team finally received reports that the four had been found and rescued by Vietnamese fishermen on May 12.