Were these the pair that were told they weren't certified to conduct a flight of this duration, decided the rules didn't apply and so an air mattress would do as a life raft, ran out of fuel, phoned mum on the way down and cost a sihtload in S&R resources?
Almost. The air mattresses were taken along under the advice of an instructor whom told them to inflate them and put them into the wings of their Thruster ultralight in case of ditching. They didn't get around to fitting and inflating them, so when they ditched they were trying to inflate them whilst having to tread water. Ther'es more commentary here:
http://www.pprune.org/pacific-genera...-tasmania.html