Boy survives six hours at night lost in Dead Sea

sweetpotatosweetpotato Posts: 1,278
edited August 2007 in A Moving Train
Gee, maybe if women were allowed to swim there, too, the kid wouldn't have gone missing UNNOTICED for six hours...

JERUSALEM (AP) -- An 8-year-old Israeli boy spent six hours floating in the Dead Sea alone at night after his father left him there by accident during a family trip, police said Sunday.

They said they would not press charges against the errant parent.

The Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth and one of Israel's most popular tourist attractions, has an abnormally high salt concentration that allows swimmers to float on the surface.

Rescue workers said the boy, Shneur Zalman Friedman, from Jerusalem, was in the sea with his father and two brothers on Thursday evening when currents swept him away from shore, without anyone else noticing.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the family was part of a large group visiting a beach reserved for ultra-Orthodox Jewish men -- who do not bathe in the presence of women -- away from main public areas.

His father left the water with other members of the group and only noticed the boy was missing as darkness fell, Rosenfeld said.

A major search by police helicopters and volunteers in motorboats finally found Shneur about 2 miles from the shore early Friday after six hours in the strong-smelling, corrosive water, Yehuda Meshi-Zahav of the Zaka rescue organization said.

The boy was dehydrated and frightened but otherwise healthy, he said. Shneur told his rescuers he remained calm throughout the ordeal, saying prayers and thinking about his school friends as he floated in the darkness.

"The boy said that he didn't try to swim, he just drifted with the current," Rosenfeld said.

The mineral-laden waters of the Dead Sea helped keep the boy afloat but could have choked him had he panicked and swallowed large quantities, said Omer Cohen of the Megilot volunteer rescue unit.

After hours of fruitless searching, workers had all but given up hope of finding the boy alive.

"We thought we were looking for a body," Cohen said. "We were surprised to find the boy alive and well."



In this case, ultraorthodox=ultrastupid. :rolleyes:
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"Obama's main opponent in this election on November 4th (was) not John McCain, it (was) ignorance."~Michael Moore

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Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • jeffbrjeffbr Seattle Posts: 7,177
    In this case, ultraorthodox=ultrastupid. :rolleyes:

    Glad the boy is OK.

    In just about every case ultraorthodox/fundamentalist/fanatical = stupid.
    "I'll use the magic word - let's just shut the fuck up, please." EV, 04/13/08
  • gue_bariumgue_barium Posts: 5,515
    Maybe he was swallowed by a whale.

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  • g under pg under p Surfing The far side of THE Sombrero Galaxy Posts: 18,200
    Just wasn't his time!

    Peace
    Earle
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    .....song_Music & Politics....Michael Franti

    *The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite INSANE*....Nikola Tesla(a man who shaped our world of electricity with his futuristic inventions)


  • note to lucky stupid floating kid...yo...kid...this way to shore =====>

    What did he swim out wim out more than like 20-50 feet?

    wierd story. Must have been a mentally challenged child, inherited from his equally mentally challenged father
    Progress is not made by everyone joining some new fad,
    and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
    over specific principles, goals, and policies.

    http://i36.tinypic.com/66j31x.jpg

    (\__/)
    ( o.O)
    (")_(")
  • hippiemomhippiemom Posts: 3,326
    note to lucky stupid floating kid...yo...kid...this way to shore =====>

    What did he swim out more than like 20-50 feet?

    wierd story. Must have been a mentally challenged child, inherited from his equally mentally challenged father
    Never been to the Dead Sea, so I don't know what the tides are like. I know I've closed my eyes for maybe a minute in Lake Erie and floated out one hell of a lot further than 50 feet.

    Besides, kids are careless, they don't understand dangers. That's what parents are for. I never took my eyes of my kids for an instant at the beach.
    "Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." ~ MLK, 1963
  • hippiemom wrote:
    Never been to the Dead Sea, so I don't know what the tides are like. I know I've closed my eyes for maybe a minute in Lake Erie and floated out one hell of a lot further than 50 feet.

    Besides, kids are careless, they don't understand dangers. That's what parents are for. I never took my eyes of my kids for an instant at the beach.

    Actually he would have to get out about 2+ miles to begin to lose sight of land.

    Maybe it got dark really fast, or the kid fell asleep somehow, but then there's lights and noises along the coastline to swim towards. I think there's extremely little chance of drowning in the dead sea as you float like a cork with that much salinity. Strange, the kid must have panicked or went blank.
    Progress is not made by everyone joining some new fad,
    and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
    over specific principles, goals, and policies.

    http://i36.tinypic.com/66j31x.jpg

    (\__/)
    ( o.O)
    (")_(")
  • Can you get trenchfoot like that?
    Come on pilgrim you know he loves you..

    http://www.wishlistfoundation.org

    Oh my, they dropped the leash.



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  • even flow?even flow? Posts: 8,066
    I wonder if the emergency craft carry life jackets when they do searches? ;)

    The kid could have kicked back and had a good snooze knowing he couldn't drown whilst waiting for the search party.
    You've changed your place in this world!
  • my2handsmy2hands Posts: 17,117
    who the hell wants to go to a beach with NO women? what is the fun in that :p
  • my2hands wrote:
    who the hell wants to go to a beach with NO women? what is the fun in that :p

    Perhaps it was a gay Orthodox Jewish beach? But wouldn't that be an oxymoron?

    Or perhaps a Orthodoxymoron!!! :D
    All I know is that to see, and not to speak, would be the great betrayal.
    -Enoch Powell
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