3 rescued after day at sea
Published: May 19, 2005
Three men were stranded at sea for a day before an NYPD aviation crew spotted them yesterday and whisked them to safety.
The men told police that they had set sail about 7 p.m. Monday from a marina in south Brooklyn. About midnight, they ran out of gas and had been drifting helplessly until police saw them at about 6 p.m. yesterday.
Only two of the men stuck with the boat - the third had jumped earlier in a bold attempt to swim to shore, and they hadn’t seen him since.
The rescue helicopter began another search and found him, wet and exhausted, resting on a small island in Jamaica Bay.
“These guys had been running around the bay for almost a day,” a police source said.
None of the men were seriously injured and were being treated for dehydration.
The boat was drifting about two miles east of Kennedy Airport when it was discovered by a police helicopter doing a training run.
One of the men signaled for help with a mirror.
First, the crew contacted the Harbor Unit. But their boats were temporarily moored because of a low tide.
They then called on their colleagues at the Aviation Unit. An Air-Sea Rescue helicopter flew out and made an emergency landing on of the many small, unpopulated islands dotting the bay.
Divers swam out to the boat and escorted them back to the helicopter. They rushed the men to Floyd Bennett Field, where ambulances were waiting to take them to Kings County Hospital Center.
That’s when the men told police about their friend.
“File it under things you should tell us at the scene,” a police source said.
They flew that man to Floyd Bennett Field as well and he was soon transported to the hospital to join his shipmates
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