By this morning,
personnel in the Coast Guard Fifth District located and assisted
four people in a disabled pleasure craft and airlifted a sick
crewman from a commercial fishing vessel.
The evening's
first search and rescue case involved a 26-foot sailing vessel
from Norfolk, Va., with one person, David Frazer, aboard.
Frazer's father notified the Coast Guard last night that his son
was en route from Norfolk to Florida, and he had not heard from
him since Dec. 3, when he called from Morehead City, NC. The
sailor's phone records indicate that he last made a cell phone
call on Sunday in the vicinity of Atlantic Beach, NC. Coast
Guard units in North and South Carolina are checking with local
marinas and boaters to try and locate Frazer and his
green-and-white, unnamed vessel.
Shortly after
receiving the call about Frazier, the Coast Guard responded to
another search and rescue call from a North Carolina man who
reported that a friend's 19-foot pleasure craft was disabled in
the vicinity of the Little River in the Albemarle Sound, but the
caller could not find the vessel. Coast Guard Station Elizabeth
City, NC, established communications with the missing boat,
which had been fishing with four people aboard, including a
12-year-old child, when its engine became disabled. The station
launched a 25-foot response boat, which located the stricken
vessel and towed it back to the station.
Later that
evening, the Coast Guard received two calls from commercial
fishing vessels offshore whose crewmen who were experiencing
medical emergencies. The fishing vessel Atlantic Runner reported
that a man on board had had a heart attack 10 to 12 nautical
miles off of Cape Lookout, NC, and CPR failed to revive him. A
47-foot motor lifeboat from Sector North Carolina and the Coast
Guard Cutter Block Island responded to the fishing vessel, where
they found the crewmember already deceased. The Block Island
escorted the fishing vessel into Fort Macon, NC.
The Coast Guard
also received a request for medical assistance from the
commercial fishing vessel Leader, which was 45 nautical miles
southeast of Cape May, NJ. The vessel reported that a
46-year-old crewmember was experiencing abdominal pains and was
vomiting. An HH-65C Dolphin helicopter from Air Station Atlantic
City, NJ, responded, hoisting the injured man aboard and
returning him to the Air Station, where an ambulance took him to
a local hospital.
The Coast Guard
also continues to search for the sailboat Pride, which left from
Lewes, Del., on Nov. 30 for Panama, and did not check in as
scheduled on Dec. 2. A C-130 Hercules was launched this morning
from Air Station Elizabeth City, NC, to continue the search off
the coast of North Carolina.
