Survivors asked to pay for rescue in Australia: reports

0 Comments | AFP, May, 2008

SYDNEY(AFP) — Two tourists who drifted in shark-infested waters off Australia for 19 hours when a diving trip went wrong have been asked to help pay for their rescue after selling their story, reports said Monday.

Briton Richard Neely, 38, and his American partner Allyson Dalton, 40, were diving on the Great Barrier Reef last Friday when they became separated from their charter boat.

They were rescued the following morning after a plane taking part in an intensive air-sea search operation spotted them floating several miles (kilometres) from where they were last seen.

Australian media reported that the couple sold their survival story to Britain's Sunday Mirror, with one newspaper saying they had been paid about a million dollars.

The reports...