Five Rescued After Boat Capsizes In Gulf

Published: September 29, 2003 | 181st good news item since 2003

Five vacationers are safe after their 21-foot fishing boat capsized in the Gulf of Mexico about 15 miles west of Cape San Blas in the Florida Panhandle.

The Coast Guard Falcon 20 jet from Mobile, Ala., was airborne near the mouth of the Mississippi River and responded to the distress signal that was sent out at about 10 a.m.

Lt. Matt Laughlin, one of the plane’s two pilots, said they spotted five people sitting on the boat’s overturned hull. They were easy to find because they had radioed their coordinates, obtained from a satellite navigation system, Laughlin, said.

The plane dropped a survival raft and the survivors climbed inside. Another recreational boat soon arrived and picked them up after hearing about what happened on the radio, Laughlin said.

They later were transferred to a Coast Guard boat that brought them ashore at Port St. Joe. No one was injured. The Coast Guard did not immediately have identifications of the survivors Monday.

Published in Rescues
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