An Australian weatherman pulled a dead body from the ocean while he was reporting on dangerous surf.
Nine News Queensland’s Luke Bradnam was broadcasting from Narrowneck on the Gold Coast on Friday evening when a beachgoer alerted him to someone struggling in the water.
Shirtless and dripping wet, Bradnam came back on camera to retell what had just happened.
“A boogie border at Narrowneck alerted me, he thought he’d seen someone struggling again out in the surf,” he told his colleagues. “I immediately stripped off and raced out with the boogie boarder to help the person in trouble.”
But after swimming out into the heaving waves he’d just been warning people against with another person, they came to the grim realization it wasn’t a rescue, but a recovery.
“When we got closer, it became pretty evident that there was a body floating in the water,” he said. “The two of us were able to secure the body and start making our way through a rip, back into shore.”
The body belonged to UK national, 32-year-old Jake Jacobs, who was reported missing from Kurrawa Beach, about 3.5 miles away the night before.
He was last seen going swimming with his 29-year-old female companion on Thursday night; a woman’s body had also since been recovered from the ocean there.
Bradnam —who managed to make the swim despite a shoulder injury that usually has his arm in a sling — said he hopes to “never experience that again”.
“In the heat of the moment, I thought this is someone’s son, it’s going to bring some closure – we’ve just got to do it,” he said.
Before the initial broadcast, Bradnam had actually rushed to the water’s edge and was about to dive in after spotting another surfer in trouble; however the surfer managed to right himself before the heroic meteorologist got to him.
