Dramatic footage shows the moment a Coast Guard helicopter team rescued two stranded Florida boaters 73 miles offshore during Hurricane Debby.
The 34-foot-long vessel lost a sail Sunday off the coast of Boca Grande, the U.S. Coast Guard said in a press release.
The rescue effort began just after 5 p.m. yesterday when friends on the boat called Coast Guard Station St. Petersburg to report that the couple had missed a scheduled check-in while traveling from Key West to Tarpon Springs.
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The two boaters were seen wearing life jackets and clinging to the railing as the boat was tossed about by 15- to 20-foot waves. (U.S. Coast Guard)
Despite poor visibility, 15-20 foot waves and 50 knot winds, an HC-144 Ocean Sentry aircraft rescue team from Air Station Miami finally located the stranded boaters around 11 a.m. the next day.
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A rescue team from Air Station Clearwater’s MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter extracted the boat’s occupants and transported them to Air Station Clearwater. (U.S. Coast Guard)
Crews loaded the two onto a helicopter and transported them to Air Force Base Clearwater.
“The most important elements of a search and rescue operation are accurate information and safety equipment,” said Lt. Cmdr. Christopher Hooper, search and rescue operations coordinator for Coast Guard District 7.
One of the boat’s crew members is seen being hoisted by an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter from Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater. (U.S. Coast Guard)
“They were successfully located after receiving satellite location updates from a friend on the boat,” the statement continued. “The rescue was coordinated by the 7th Precinct and the St. Petersburg Precinct as Tropical Storm Debbie moved through the region.”
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Debby was later downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm and initially made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region early Monday morning as a Category 1 hurricane, reportedly killing at least five people in Florida and Georgia. Fox Weather.
