Fuh Jing Yang

Fuh Jing Yang was born on 29 July 1958 in Taiwan and was of Taiwanese nationality. He was single and worked as a fisherman. At the time of his disappearance he was working on the Taiwanese fishing vessel Hung Chun 5 in the Indian Ocean off Broome in Western Australia.

The Hung Chun 5 left Taiwan on 21 July 1984 and arrived at the outer anchorage of Broome during the afternoon of 3 August anchoring approximately 12 kilometres west of Broome.

Shortly after anchoring three men, including Fuh Jing Yang and a crewman named Wan Chi Yang, started to drink wine in a downstairs cabin and continued to drink until around 5.00am on Saturday morning, 4 August. They were all very intoxicated and fell asleep.

It is unclear what happened next but it appears that somehow Wan Chi Yang made his way out of his cabin and onto the deck where he fell into the water. Shortly after the departure of an Australian Department of Fisheries boat, around 11.00am, Fuh Jing Yang saw Wan Chi Yang lying on his back in the water having apparently fallen overboard. He threw him a life ring but Wan Chi Yang was unable to grab it so he dived into the water wearing a life ring that was attached to the vessel by a rope in order to try and rescue him. Swimming over he was unable to place the loose life ring over him and both Wan Chi Yang and the life ring started to drift away. Unable to reach him as he drifted due to his life ring being attached to the vessel by a rope Fuh Jing made the brave decision to take off his life ring so that he could swim over and help Wan Chi Yang. He took the loose life ring and swam over to him.

At this time another crew member dived into the water and and took hold of the life ring that Fuh Jing Yang had relinquished and was still attached to the vessel by a rope. He tried to reach both men but by now they were too far away and he returned to the vessel. Other crew members used binoculars to keep sight of the two men but they quickly disappeared from view.

The vessel’s radio operator radioed Broome Radio and the message was received by Overseas Telecommunications (OTC) Broome at 12.40pm. As the radio operator’s first language was not English and after some difficulty in deciphering the message for help a search and rescue operation was commenced. The Captain, Ren Guay Jang, later advised police that he did not take up anchor and search for the men as he felt the tide was running the wrong way and he believed that the water would be too rocky and shallow to manoeuvre the vessel safely.

Police officers began to make enquiries and it was not until around 2.50pm that they made contact with a person from OTC who confirmed the message received from Hung Chung 5 of two men overboard. They had not notified police immediately as they had been endeavouring to decipher the messages and identify where the vessel was located.

At 3.30pm a local fisherman, Robert Nash, was requested to keep himself and his boat on standby in case he was needed to assist in the sea search. At 3.50pm he was requested to go out and search with a police officer onboard. He waited for the police officer for some time but decided to go out alone and start searching due to the wind and tide directions.

A short time after searching he saw an object in the water which appeared to be a person’s head and shoulders. The person was hanging on to a life ring with one hand and holding on to a partly submerged body with the other. As he approached the man let go of the body and raised his hand to wave to him. As he got closer the man slumped over the life ring, totally exhausted and Nash saw the other body sinking downwards in the water, his hands raised above his head. Fuh Jing Yang was the man sinking below the water and Wan Chi Yang the man slumped over the life ring.

Nash eventually managed to pull Wan Chi Yang into his boat but could see no trace of the other person and turned his attention to Wan Chi Yang and tried to assist him in expelling water from his body. Another search vessel Sealife took Wan Chi Yang to shore and Nash dropped some buoys to mark the area before returning to shore to pick up a police officer and heading back out to search for the missing person.

The search for Fuh Jing Yang continued until 5.30pm and recommenced at 9.00am on Sunday 5 August without any sign of him being found. Over the coming weeks land searches of the shore were undertaken just in case the body was washed ashore but there were no sightings.

Wan Chi Yang eventually made a full recovery and had no recollection of how he ended up in the water and his only recollection was a life ring being thrown into the water and the fact that he couldn’t swim over to the life ring as his legs wouldn’t move. The next thing he remembered was waking up in hospital.

Fuh Jing Yang bravely jumped into the water to save his colleague. He was successful in his rescue attempt but tragically lost his own life while saving the life of another. His family were advised, via Interpol, on 19 September 1984 of his disappearance and suspected death.

An inquest was finally held at the Perth Coroner’s Court on 25 January 2022 with a finding that Fuh Jing Yang’s death on 4 August 1984 was a result of drowning and accidental.