Boat Stuck in Heavy Waves Rescued | Coast Guard Alaska | Full Episode

deep in the open waters of the Gulf of Alaska a violent storm threatens the safety of a sailboat captain Marty Dunford uber is knocked down then my fear was that the next one might inflict further damage it would the second I get down in the boat I'm like holy cow this guy's been out here for eight days while closer to Sitka a fishing trip takes a tragic turn all alive and when a young girl must get to higher medical care the Coast Guard is the only option when I hear that it's a three-year-old child it kind of ramps everybody up obvious reasons most of the guys on the crew that day had kids so movement is a priority [Music] the vast Alaskan wilderness a place where beauty is cloaked by danger here every day the highly trained men and women of the u.s. Coast Guard risk their lives to save others America's deadliest waters are protected by Coast Guard Alaska [Music] and he perv is going off up near the Fairweather I guess the he perverts registered to about a 30-foot sailboat unknown number of people on board unknown as I said that's like anything else 45 minutes transit from here my name is will Walker I'm a lieutenant commander at Air Station Sitka Alaska I know we were launched on a Annie perb that was detected by sector Juneau and district 7 command center beeper was apparently registered to a 31 foot sailboat named attack and I it was a position it transmitted was in the vicinity of the Fairweather fishing grounds it was about 60 miles offshore Yakutat Alaska we hear that there's a boat in distress that far offshore a c-130 has launched from Air Station Kodiak they're gonna be transiting out there while we're getting out there I expect they'll get on scene about 10 or 20 minutes ahead of us because they even though come farther away they fly faster [Music] pretty ridiculous [Music] the advice we are here for comparison stick at this time we just do a four-person sophomore get real force our requests you see by reading of our design butter do whatever we need sir [Music] when we're taking off covering that amount of distance you might fly through several weather patterns and route and the weather there it could be completely different it might be better than it is here now or it could be significantly worse than bees here unfortunately there are no weather stations that far offshore so we just kind of go prepared for anything and then along the way we kind of constantly update our own little risk assessment on their heads as the weather develops it now [Applause] [Music] [Music] seven emmalin's kind of community or Beth fielder and I'm a c-130 pilot here at Air Station Kodiak we were talking to the h-60 well before they got on scene we wanted to verify their ETA and and sort of get an idea of what course of action we were gonna take once we're all on scene well just ask you down there at this stretch down here someplace [Music] we're gettin xfinity event laughs foggy PETA for just item IDs yes yeah negative negative just a lot of water pretty he looks prettier I have been moving quite a bit [Music] I heal the vessel on channel 16 and try to get in touch with him to verify his position so that we go directly to him and save some time he gave us a good coordinates we went to that position however the seas were very rough it was 8 to 10-foot seas out there the winds were blowing at 40 knots so it was difficult to spot him okay so he's real close to left side someplace guys nothing on radar serious target in sight one o'clock flow Maps is double oh it's not okay he's got his sails down yes okay come on give me a marker yeah that's a he'll annoyed creative where we have the target acquired miles and the sails down so they're a little hard to see as we got on there and started circling orbiting the c-130 identified the boat and said it's behind you so at that point we realized okay he's being pushed around and he's moving quite a bit through the weather that we have on scene at that point we made a turn back to his last-known position from the c-130 and was able to spot him at that point visually so we got on scene with the skipper on the radio we brought him up on channel 16 and started talking to him and then we asked him what his current situation was vessel ejack good afternoon sir what'd you see what's going on down there yeah I've got no water coming in for currently there's a couple of small leaks on deck I've got no power no engine I've already suffered numerous knockdowns and my fear was that the next one might inflict some further damages leaving me in the water so that's the reason for my call dick help I know I get my shell absolutely [Music] like your head kind of a rough ride down there I guess our biggest concern is we don't want you thought slaughter some another means you're not here next Purcell for your vessel small finger pounder but then yeah and about now for eight days whether this store for the past 36 hours essentially and again numerous knock down the waves state sea States beach implements they're the least breaking ways I've tried nearly every strategic tactic as far as weathering the storm how would you feel about how would you feel about something yeah okay I guess life is the most important thing man I'm uh everything ready yet once we've established that he did in fact when I come off the vessel it just became a question of what's the safest way to do that in in the way that provides the least risk to him and the least risk to us ultimately we decided we need to put our rescue swimmer down there so it being a 31-foot sailboat with a mass we decided it wasn't the best idea to hoist me directly to the boat and we chose sling deployment considering the conditions in the wind which means I would just get hoisted down into the water swim up to the boat establish communications with the captain and then go from there [Music] no one's holding cocido for forward-pointing and stars on the water and he's away to be a rather deceiving from the air when you're looking down at a boat it can appear to be not moving then once you get down in the water you realize how fast it really is moving just from the winds and we took this into account and we had the captain tie off a buoy to a long line and throw it over the stern of his boat so they could just grab that line and pull myself in the second I get down to the boat I'm like holy cow this guy's been out here for eight days and just and you know the swells have been getting bigger and smaller and just constantly changing and he's doing really well however the boats not doing so well the captain lost all propulsion and power so that means he was not able to put the bow of the vessel into the swell it was taking it on the port side which means that the vessel was just rocking and rolling heavily and he actually explained that the masts that touched the water at one point I didn't want to have to go through that with him on the boat so he secured everything that I needed to do tied everything down so for best case scenario the boat does make it and then after that it was just time to get him in the water and hoist him away [Music] all right the both jumped off the boat together and after that I needed to keep him in close in control for a buddy - so pretty much I'm just grabbing him and swimming him over - away from the boat into the position that the helicopter wants us to be the biggest concern is just trying to keep up in time the waves right and making sure that I'm not paying out too much slack to get that cable tangled around them and making sure that I don't have too little paid out so that it pops the the basket out of the water when they're not ready for it and no fibers back to the water boy [Music] bring on the survivor inside the cabin and ready to the Vatican after a successful completion of the hoist of the survivor it's just my job to get away sit out of there to do for we're just about to go fuel-burning slide back god bless you guys meet us from the transit back home baby once we depart scene on the flight back it seemed like the weather was improving in fact one point we saw the sunshine a little blue sky beat down on the way home so that was that made the flight back pretty easy a little lower stress and then our survivor in the back I think was happy to be on the way home as well so we gonna take him to Sitka I'm Lauren Williams I had just purchased a new vessel in Valdez and the plan was to get it back here to do Sitka Alaska weathering storms is all part of the journey you know within 20 hours there was a 45 ml bar drop in pressure which essentially says that you need to seek refuge but where I was there was nothing I could do after spending a couple nights in a survival suit curled up in the fetal position talked in a nook and cranny in my boat lying broadside to waves I felt like I was I was as good as dead one dream if I was gonna get her gold bird tossed or knocked down again waves were breaking that smashed you on one side or the other and there was just nothing you could do it was just it was it was survival conditions I would say and I eventually resorted to the last resort which is a resource that nobody likes to have to use but when it's there you're glad that it's there the Coast Guard you always say oh it's not gonna happen to me but either what when it happens to you and you see the blades chop chop chopping up top it's kind of amazing and it warms your heart a little bit you know and it made you know at least you weren't alone out there [Music] this was sort of that stereotypical you know when you think about the Coast Guard you think about high seas rescue and that's kind of what this was where to get this guy safely off his boat safely back to the Air Station and I kind of helped him out on what might have been the worst day of his life I think the crew felt pretty good about that [Music] as I'm going out the door I see that the CPR is being done so first thought right there is that this needs to be a fast evolution I need to work smoothly and quickly the family members sons there and he's the one doing the CPR so right from the start it's a it's a tough emotionally charged situation versus working hard down there homebodies be alive ast3 Camryn Colen here in Sitka Alaska and this is Mount Bristow via trailhead we plan on hiking to the top stay in the night and do too much snow boarding early in the morning we just rescued a man in some pretty big waves and now that I have the day off it's great to see the brighter side of Mother Nature siga is just absolutely beautiful this is only a couple miles away from my doorstep and just to be able to park at sea level and be able to hike up 3,000 feet and it's just there's a whole new world it's really beautiful [Music] right now on top and picnic rock this is gonna be the first run of the day just a little warmup that was sick so my first couple runs in there's really fun tons of powder right behind me we got known Bristow vo I've had a goal for a while that I want to go down the center mass of a mountain then see if I can conquer that chute [Music] I've been trying to do this specific run since I've been here in Sickler which is a little over two and a half years so it feels good to have all the right conditions to finally get this done this is frickin awesome up here all right [Music] feel like a little kid up there there's just such a rush to be standing up there at the top once you start going down the mountain that you know work so many hours and hiking up there's no other feeling like it refreshing there's so much powder you just feel like you're floating on air at the very end of the run if you all have the adrenaline dump and you realize what you just put your body through there's just a really euphoric feeling it's awesome I joined the Coast Guard when I was 18 years old I just knew that I wanted to be in the military but I had no idea that I would end up at such an amazing place like this [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] lieutenant Brooks Crawford one of the pilots here at Air Station Sitka and we got word that there's a heart-attack victim on a charter vessel out by björk Island in this particular instance all they can do is CPR I don't know what kind of equipment they have on board so that really shortens our timeline makes it a pretty urgent case you guys got it all set up girls program okay all right so a guy on a 25-foot boat I'm guessing there's probably not a whole lot of great area to hoist you want this thing I've got a boat in sight I think that's them so we knew from the vicinity of where this was taking place that it was gonna be a quick hop and the only way to get this individual off was definitely by helicopter we're probably there within five to six minutes it's a very short time to prep and get everything ready for something that could be made up here and you're a priest here is your basis Phyllis conscious conscious find a pulse right now okay Roger okay overhead at this time are you the right you [ __ ] way for us to do a hoist let me know yeah Roger captain's now we've got a quick release pre-cast you ready step down there the white one yes there to the right okay call your uncle Gary I'll be done [Music] captain now we've got a quick recap the white one right hoisting the vessels is one of the primary things that we train for it's kind of our bread and butter you might say and although we train very often we stay very proficient with that there's always you know risks in danger associated with that kind of an evolution you've got somebody swinging below the aircraft trying to go to a very small platform the whole boat was 25-foot long and the aft portion he was trying to go to was even smaller than that and it also had three people already on it working frantically okay be a harness deployment of the rest before to the boat underway we'll do this pretty small boat was about 30 feet the heart-attack victim he was unconscious so automatically thinking you you want to get this guy that as fast as possible to hire medical care so we could not see it you want to bridge that gap between him being out there offshore cut back here into the hospital where he could receive that urgent care that you needed for anything we get the boys Roger bringing scraps I got to go check those checks please somebody's going down as I'm going out the door I see that the CPR is being done so first thought right there is that this needs to be a fast evolution I need to work smoothly and quickly and efficiently [Music] Weber okay I immediately disconnect our signals to the plane and have them push off a bit so I can start talking to the individuals come to find out that they just started CPR about 10 15 minutes or so before we got on scene you know the family member his son's there and he's the one doing the CPR so right from the start it's a it's a tough emotionally charged situation working hard down there all buddy be alive assess make sure you had no pulse as soon as I confirmed that he didn't and I started breaking up the o2 and started getting an airway into him all right it looks like yeah the guys out so we might as well get herself laid up we know what's coming next we know this is already a very time critical situation and there's a lot of things to talk about and a lot of things to accomplish that very live delivery of the litter to the floor on the boat everything else remains the same at number 30 at this point Chris calls for the litter and that's actually a multi-step operation first we have to put a tray line outside the helicopter and move in when we deliver the litter outside the helicopter it has a tendency to swing and with the rest of smart pulling that trail line and helps us get it on board more quickly like that one has to package up the survivor in the litter we'll do that with the help of the people on board all right it's ready to pick up and finally we have to hoist up the survivor in the litter Chris I'd the victim strapped into the litter pretty good and they were still giving them CPR to the last second till I mean the guys were doing a heck of a job on the bow everyone was helping out and Chris gives me ready for pickup and we caught in and we pick up the litter clear him off deck and back off and start bringing them up clear and fun Roger I'm gonna be bringing them in here okay great job but it's hopefully inside of caps doors over there let's get picking up once the individual is actually in the pillow just give a real quick hand signal I'm ready for pickup once I'm disconnected from the hook and the sliding doors closed I know I need to start my CPR again keep the airway going make sure that he's got oxygen in him you start defibrillating him if it calls for it Coast Guard Sector Juneau will be on deck every minute Christmas is immediate like a spark plug he didn't miss a beat all of his attention and everything was was right back on the victim he was drenched in sweat but that didn't slow him down at all he just kept going his main priority and focus was continuing vitals on this victim CPR in itself is very tiring especially for us while we're in the back of a bouncing helicopter with very very little room when you can't get to his head or one legs on a seat and the other ones underneath it it's like trying to do it in a closet with the door shut it's not easy and it's very exhausting at this point we're acutely aware of what's going on in the back of the helicopter Chris is working to the very best of his abilities nick is doing the same they're doing everything possible to help the survivor [Music] we're broaching the air station as quickly as possible and we see exactly what we want to see that being EMS waiting for us we land to the ramp attacks you over quickly and then we just leave the engines and rotors turning and allow Chris and Nick to help with that litter and get to get the patient over to the ambulance you know that this individuals life is literally in your hands the whole case was such a short time that there was no time to feel tired you know tired will come later when it's all done I need to get him off this plane and into that ambulance as fast as possible faster I can do it the higher care he gets and better chance he has of living [Music] you know it's up to us to do our very best to give everything that we have and everything that we've trained for to help a person who's in need but quickly you learn you know that you can't always save the day all you can do is all you can do and in the end that's uh that's what it's about [Music] what are you doing I'm in Sitka Alaska right now is a day before we get a start a three-day fishing tour the three-hour tour not the three-hour tour with the three-day tour ten hours up in ten hours a day ten hours a day fishing with my son Oh a dream come true we've always wanted to go to a last thing go fishing we've talked about it since he's three years old here we are my name is Elijah my dad was uh 62 years old when we need passed on [Music] vacation that's it yeah I agree I always wanted to take him on his dream vacation and to him that was an Alaskan fishing adventure he gets this fish and he's got it hooked in good and he's reeling for he'll probably bout five or ten minutes he's getting his fish in so I grabbed the camera and I took a couple of Steel photos and probably within five or six seconds of that is when he had had his his heart attack immediately when he hits the ground it's basically like the worst case scenario that you could possibly imagine you're in the middle of nowhere in Alaska you have no immediate access to health care when I saw the Coast Guard's helicopters coming it was almost like angels in the sky there really are no words to express the gratitude that I have for those individuals that came to our aid that day you must be made of such good substance to put yourself behind others and I can't think those individuals enough for their service and if there is anything that I could do it would be help to make their job easier there could have been something that would have really helped us that data to save him you know and that's of course the AED that we didn't have on board [Music] [Music] hey next we'll go through the escapes releases I'll jump in the water we can do the approaches front surface rear surface approach underwater approach a here at Air Station Sitka this week we're having a standardization test the standardization team when they come they're usually testing us on our bread and butter our main job is search and rescue were over the water we go into the front and rear escape and then front rear release my name is ast1 Neil Cahoon and what I'm doing is I'm from aviation training center Mobile Alabama today I'm gonna be doing a search-and-rescue check and a standardization check with ASD - Chris Belisle his evaluation will consist of a TT tests in the pool we'll follow that with a flight [Music] we have to do what colas are life-saving drills and that's how we approach different victims forward/reverse actively drowning victims that grab us how do we escape from them how we release for them whatever you guys already go for it the Stantec is really important for us to do especially the other guys like myself you know you've been doing this for a long time you can get complacent but for our earlier brief we'll start off with a freefall deployment of the survivor I'll be acting as a duck in the water and he is the rescue swimmer and I'm going to evaluate them on how he actually rescues me there's a weight bar is in the water there are some nerves there I mean it's nothing over empowering where you just can't do it it's more of the you know what's he gonna do while I'm out there it's nothing that I can't handle but it's just a little on edge of what it is clear the water clear back 11 Tucker all the Coast Guard's air crews are required to fly and perform it in a standard way and what this enables us to do is air crews from Sitka here and meet up with air crews from say Clearwater Florida for Hurricane Katrina type event and they can mix air crews jump on one airplane and everybody knows what everyone else is doing board hold for MERS virus fire clear the water Chris did an excellent job on his entire flight he is one of the instructors here at Air Station Sitka it's apparent that he's been in the books he knows his job he's a professional at what he does this Dan check went really well was a really good day and it was fun [Music] [Music] see you [ __ ] so they said we're gonna pick up at a net Iowan it's still sorting out if we're gonna go to wolf point order the airport okay we'll get that information in ruff will be big at two hours to figure that out tell commander Doug Atkins a Coast Guard Air Station Sitka Alaska you got a call about 4:30 this morning for a medevac for a young child at the two-year-old girl and she has some pretty severe abdominal pains right now and they're particularly concerned cause she had appendicitis a couple months back and they're not sure if it's complications from that so they want to get her off Matt Michaela which is a small larger Native Alaskan village off of the island of a net and over to Ketchikan to the hospital [Music] so I'll get everyone out of Sitka just a little bit after sunrise the flight tamela Katla from sick is about two hours normally for 20 bucks some thirty to forty nine headwinds with the headwinds to take us up to about two and a half hours this morning when spirits come right off the nose and slowing us down a good bit [Music] [Music] okay in the back yes sir paper cup of coffee when you have an emergency and especially in southeast Alaska where the area is so big our transit times almost two hours for me as the medical technician one of my first thoughts is you know how about is this young child so many things can go wrong you know have they been up all night which makes him even crankier they're gonna be afraid of what's going on with the noise of the helicopter and you know these big strange people coming in with big helmets and loud noises so they'd have to Dunn and I are talking about what we're gonna do when we get on scene I'm really thinking about you know all the scenarios of what could be wrong with this child and what I can do to mitigate it we'll put Bob and I will put her over here Bob real quick throw right on a litter hold over there we arrived on scene first responders from Metlakatla waiting there with the ambulance which is exactly how we like to do a medevac to get there and have the patient standing by so it makes the fastest possible turn around to get the patient to the hospital where they need to be [Music] we're responding to a call for a two-year-old with abdominal pain as soon as we landed everything was safe and secured on deck I just got out and made my approach to the ambulance swimmer went and checked on the patient and I took the Guardian to the side gave her a pre-brief for riding in the helicopter you know you could tell that she was nervous about what was going on with her daughter briefed her on how to dawn the Mactan and try to comfort her as much as we can and make everything as easy as possible the short transit to catch camp the decision for us to bring along the mother was a really big one especially with little children they feel safer with their family around obviously you know you're able to talk to the mother calmly in a nice safe setting while I was finishing up with the paramedic inside the ambulance she's been tired through the night so she just kind of rolled up into my arms and I just picked her up and carried her like a child all right already the flight from Metlakatla over to catch cans only about 10 minutes but we are going to be crossing you know open water to get over there so we're gonna take all the same safety precautions we take for any flight in Alaska I didn't ever deal with a child case you know a lot of us are our parents we have kids so there's my child I'm gonna be pretty emotionally involved in that so I'm glad I can help somebody also if they get their kid to keep me on the care they needed girl was tired and she slept for most of it so my job was relatively easy just making sure that she was comfortable and was laying down wasn't rolling around and pulling out or IV making sure that the moms comfortable and buckled in I didn't before you know what we were laying it on deck Ketchikan this medevac went about as well as they could go the EMS folks from met were right on they were there when we got there we had the patient transferred in just a couple of minutes and where she needed to be it's pretty routine for us to in this case but I was gonna remember her you know certainly not a routine for mom and her two-year-old getting taken out you know middle of the morning and a Coast Guard helicopter it's really a big deal for them so I try to keep that perspective and they're always gonna try to do the best we can for everybody we're hoping [Music] we'll be happy it definitely feels good going home at night to my family knowing that you know the Coast Guard's there and is able to help people if I was in their position I would definitely want the Coast Guard to be there for me so is there good feeling working for this organization [Music] [Music] my name is Elijah Freeman we're in Sitka Alaska and it's been a year since I've been here I've been invited to come back just reunite with the team that worked so diligently on my father trying to keep him alive and you know it was kind of odd but I kind of felt like I was coming to visit my dad on the way here Elijah hey how you doing I'm what are you doing good good it's good yeah never forget those eyes man all right thank you I see you Nate nice to meet you Oh Howard thank you thank you good that pops Wow so this is the poem my father caught his fish on yeah so Wow that's good luck today that's the oh you better be yeah today we're gonna go fishing on the carpe diem which is kind of fitting to seize the moment so to speak really today's fishing trip is about celebrating the memory of my father I'm just here to be with my dad today and the people who were on that boat and on that helicopter who tried to save my dad there's one croissants here we go yeah always fighting now every Tom's [Music] he's right there at the enemy pot we'll go though just talking my first fish and it got off so I think somewhere my dad's up there laughing at me there we go let's get it flooded full of emotions beam it we're actually in the place where my father last lived you know he caught his last fish here I feel very satisfied now that I've been able to come back to the place that me and my dad last we're able to speak and have fun and enjoy a father-son relationship here it comes bread is a big boy [Applause] [Music] that one's for you coming out today was definitely good time good closure for the case and everything Elijah was able to pull in above average sighs king salmon just kind of sealed the deal it made it all worthwhile for everyone out here today huh I love you [Music] putting my father's ashes in the place that he would last wish that he would be you know it's very fulfilling to myself spiritually and who I am as an individual thanks guys for taking me out today I mean this is something that I you know I can't ever repay you for and for everything that you've done representing the Coast Guard representing everyone here in Sitka that fishes and takes people on their life dreams I couldn't tell you guys how how much I truly thank you from the bottom of my heart how people do work tell us when you look up at the sky and you know that there are a group of people men and women both willing to lay their lives on the line every day to keep people like me and my father safe out here I'm very honored to be a part of that system to know that we have men and women like that who are essentially fearless and want to help others I can't think these individuals enough you

Channel: DangerTV

Views: 280,976

Keywords: boat stuck in heavy waves rescued, coast guard alaska, full episode, coast guard alaska full episode, coast guard alaska season 3 episode 5, coast guard alaska season 3, full episode of coast guard alaska, full episode of coast guard alaska season 3, us coast guard, us coast guard alaska, united states coast guard, united states coast guard alaska, danger, dangertv, danger tv, Danger, DangerTV, Danger TV, coast guard rescue, coast guard search & rescue, helicopter search & rescue

Id: 1mAjaAnlFbE

Length: 42min 33sec (2553 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 18 2020