An American teenage solo sailor who went missing in rough Indian Ocean seas has been found safe and well with her damaged vessel.
Abby Sunderland, 16, was spotted by an Australian search plane at 7am.
She ran into trouble in a remote part of the ocean and triggered emergency beacons.
Her father Laurence told Australia's public broadcaster ABC: 'She's fine, the boat's afloat and she's on it. It's huge, fantastic, exciting news.'
She lost satellite phone contact with her family in California yesterday morning before manually activating the beacons. Her father said the yacht had lost its mast.
Australian rescue authorities had warned of 'extremely poor' conditions in the remote part of the ocean where she was drifting, with 90km/ph winds and six metre swells.
She was located by a chartered passenger jet that flew out of Perth, some 3,700km away on the west coast of Australia, carrying rescue experts including trained spotters.
