Missing boaters found after pilot spots SOS on cabin roof

This news link is short on details but the missing boaters had enough sense to at least carry a signal mirror and to also think of making a SOS sign on a cabin roof that they came across.

INUVIK, N.W.T. Mounties say a pilot who spotted an S-O-S sign from the air helped find a group of boaters who had been missing from Inuvik.

RCMP say the pilot with NorthWright Airways was on a regular flight from Inuvik to Aklavik noticed the call for help spelled out on a cabin roof along the Mackenzie River.


Note that the URL for the above news link is working but is currently cross linked in with another URL so it may not be valid later. I will check and edit this post later if needed.

Here's a better link (with the right photo):
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/story/2012/07/10/north-inuvik-boaters-saved-pilot-sos.html

It's big country up there. Their boat broke down and they managed to reach a cabin. Nobody knew where they were headed. They painted "SOS" on the boat and used a mirror (probably not a signal mirror, but the story is unclear) to get a pilot's attention.

The pilot's comments are highly instructive:
"When I saw the S.O.S., I knew exactly what it was. But I actually didn’t see the S.O.S. until I was almost overhead the cabin. It was actually, whoever was using the mirror to shine a light — that was the thing that got my attention. Otherwise I never would have seen it from how far away I was," he said.

Szaefer [the pilot] said the light must have been reflecting from four to five miles away.