UPDATE: A 68-year-old woman tragically died at home after her husband was unable to reach emergency services during a significant Optus outage affecting multiple regions. This outage, which lasted from 1 AM to 2 PM AEST on Thursday, disrupted over 600 emergency calls across Western Australia, South Australia, and the Northern Territory.
The woman, who lived in Queenstown, Adelaide, suffered chest pains and attempted to contact triple-0 for help. Her husband reported that his call could not get through, reflecting a broader crisis that also saw the deaths of a 74-year-old man and a 49-year-old man in WA due to the outage. An eight-week-old baby also lost its life during this emergency.
In a heartfelt statement, her husband expressed the family’s grief, saying, “On behalf of our family, we mourn the loss of our Wife/Sister. We hope that the authorities are able to investigate the terrible circumstances so other families don’t experience a tragedy like this.” He also acknowledged the pain felt by the family of the young child who died.
WA Police have conducted 137 welfare checks for the 149 callers in WA who were unable to connect with emergency services during the outage. As the situation unfolds, Optus CEO Stephen Rue is expected to provide an update on Sunday afternoon. Mr. Rue expressed his sorrow over the situation, stating, “I am deeply saddened by this further news and extend my heartfelt condolences to the person’s family and friends.”
Criticism of Optus has intensified, with officials claiming the company must be held accountable for the outage. WA Premier Roger Cook stated, “This is a dreadful, dreadful tragedy,” urging the Federal Government to conduct a thorough investigation into the incident. He emphasized that Australians must know their network can be relied upon, adding, “Optus will need to answer to those families, and I imagine there will be serious legal ramifications.”
Earlier on Saturday, Mr. Rue admitted at a press conference that two separate complaints regarding the outage were made to the company’s contact center around 9 AM AEST on Thursday but were not acted upon. This delay has raised serious questions about the company’s crisis management and response protocols.
As the fallout continues, many are left wondering how such a critical failure could occur. The community’s pain is palpable, and the call for justice grows louder. Authorities are under pressure to ensure that no family suffers a similar loss due to network failures in the future.
Stay tuned for further updates as we continue to monitor this developing story.
