The November 2009 Indian Ocean migrant boat disaster occurred in the early hours of Monday, 2 November 2009, when a boat carrying about forty Sri Lankan asylum seekers sank in the Indian Ocean at a distance of some 350 nautical miles (650 km) north-west of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. According to the initial reports made the same day, more than 20 migrants were missing after 17 had been accounted for and/or saved by the RAAF and the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia.