Mayday Ship Sinking! | Coast Guard Alaska | Full Episode

January 24th the cold winter air in Alaska is punctured by an all-too-familiar sound they were taking on water they didn't know if they could stay afloat and it sounded pretty serious the events of the next 14 hours will push the entire crew of Air Station Kodiak to their limits I've never been so terrified to be honest with you it had us rocking in our seats the vast Alaskan wilderness a place where beauty is cloaked by danger here every day 350 highly trained men and women risk their lives to save others America's deadliest waters are protected by Coast Guard Alaska [Laughter] about an hour going to call from D 1750 eight-foot fishing vessel with four adult males on board the location of the vessel is across the Shelikof Strait and Portage Bay it's about 113 miles west-southwest of Kodiak and that's all the information we have we don't know if their sink in we don't know if they're some kind of medical needs so right now we're just sort of speculating what the problem on the vessel is just update 58-foot vessel possibly beached in distress for adult males on board the captain contacted his wife via sad phone she contacted the Coast Guard and they are requesting assistance the plan is it's about a hundred and fifty miles from here we're going to try to climb up over the top of the island go direct anyone have any questions okay as soon as they get the plane gassed up we go and the captain of the best what was talking to his wife on the satphone it was cut off and they couldn't get any any contact that was the last communication to have with the vessel and sector's been trying to hel the fishing vessel Kimberly with no luck so we want to waste any time we started working towards getting in the aircraft we knew there's four people on board and they were hard aground our main concern was making sure what you get out there in timely manner is up in Alaska it's always pulled out and if they had gone in the water for any reason their survivability rate goes down significantly the thing about Alaska that makes it so difficult is most of the time we don't even know exactly what the weather is they're flying into we are always making a conscious decision to evaluate the risk we're taking against the game that we might have and we're willing to take a lot of risk for the chance of saving human life we programmed in the flight director straight-line path to the last-known position of the vessel in distress and as we were getting closer and closer we noticed the weather was quickly deteriorating over a shelf off straight the wind picked up cuz at 50 knots and then we were seeing sustained winds 60 to 70 knots at that point we were able to establish radio communications with the vessel skipper we were talking to and we fixed their position at that point it was in a cove that was at the base of two pretty large mountains and we were looking at sometimes up to 100 knots of wind coming in which is pretty much equivalent to a category 3 hurricane we determined that we were going to try to drop a trail line down to him and then use that to guide a rescue device to the vessel we dropped down to about 3,000 feet but we started picking up updrafts coming off the mountains and at one point we had all of the power taken out of the plane we were still climbing at a thousand feet per minute so we're physically unable to descend [Music] [Music] I've never been so terrified to be honest with you it it had us rocking in our seats the wind was so strong it was just pushing us over basically it took us two hours to get 5 miles and a small cook that would have taken only seconds on a clear day to transit the winds have never been that bad on any flight that I've ever been on and what made it worse was it was dark out so it was rough after almost 2 hours we finally made it over top of the vessel I put 20 pounds of weight on the end of the trail line as soon as it went out the door it went backwards just straight back behind the aircraft I've never seen it do something like that the force of the wind was incredible it was 20 pounds on the trail line felt like a hundred pounds to the one just wanted to take it away from me it was a pretty dicey situation if the trail light that went out the door contacted the tail rotor that can be a catastrophic event to the water and have that designer the water one at a time you think about that J pencil can't believe something coastguard helicopter [Music] [Music] [Music] we came up with possibly delivering the rescue swimmer directly on the cable since he had weight we could deliver him hopefully try to deliver him straight down keep in mind during this whole evolution the wind's blowing and it's got to be about negative 30 degrees with the wind chill my face was completely frozen in my hands we're getting pretty numb we were about 50 feet from the vessel and helicopter was getting thrown around violently up and down backwards and forwards [Music] my gosh it's a toll [Music] [Music] you guys off right now it's not comfortable I hit the water we reach it bingo fuel for us so we're gonna have to head back to base you guys lose your generator you didn't have any other source when the Coast Guard shows up on scene a lot of people think we're rescued and in those conditions we know that that is not the case that there's a lot more that has to go on and when we had to leave scene I realized what a psychological blow that can be to people that are counting on us to rescue them it's extremely tough to tell the captain that we weren't gonna be able to effect a voice that night you know there's nothing more as a crew we wanted than to get those guys off the boat and bring them home safe but we couldn't do it [Music] and cheerfully coastguard helicopter the call came in from the air station oh do there was a vessel hard aground on the south side of the Alaska Peninsula about 110 miles from Air Station Kodiak there was four persons on board all mail sounded like there were no injuries but they were pretty scared [Music] and you leave the vessel may roll over the captain's you have a life raft [Applause] purchase this one of the best you it was very difficult to fly away from the vessel because we knew they were still really in a lot of distress but we simply did not have enough fuel and we did not have the capability to get them off at that boat at that time [Music] on the way back the crew is exhausting but what we did was we started turning our focus from not only what we had done but evaluating what information we could provide to the command and to the next crew that had to go out that might help them be able to have a better chance being successful based on what we learned in the couple of hours that we spin in those conditions [Music] I'll say feet I feel beat up bummed out about it I had I was about to put James out the door man yeah you look at some cases all of the little shook up for sure every night terrified that was bad that was a teeth punch [Applause] [Music] it's kind of seen you don't want to see get out there you know you're gonna go out and bad weather which you don't expect you to be that you got to take an hour to get five miles just pushing me back and you see the guys on the boat they need to help you can't get it's really disheartening I'm comfy to see them done go ahead and take the vest off talk about this a little bit reader what was alarming to me was my first reaction when I stole the crew that had been out there when I saw their eyes they looked beat-up worst conditions they've ever been in and when you're looking at two experienced pilots like that Audie Andrey and jake smith when the top of the top tells you that it's bad out there it's hard to send another crew out into that situation it's just covered with ice significant winds I mean I am the North Shore how were they watch bay turbulence wise stay right here yeah he's a mountain in each side and then a higher like just to the stern of the vessel a couple hundred yards is like a rocky shore but I mean we we talked about everything we kind of ran out of gas and ideas you know we kept trying till we got to our bingo fuel they've got dry suits on they had a generator with lights we didn't think it was safe to get him off the boat we were looking at 80 to 90 mile an hour winds which is difficult in any situation let alone at night 100 feet off the water and having this is two phenomenal pilots coming back and telling me that it's really really bad out there just made me really reconsider you know what's the gain of this flight if we're gonna put our crew at just much risk it doesn't sound like we can do the hoist where we are this guy's not scared yeah they sounded like they knew that situation was they want to get off that boat we wanted to get him off that boat there was no that was what needed to happen anytime you walk in and you see the skipper there at two o'clock in the morning not only do you know what's complicated but you know you you know the the boss has got your back and crews appreciate that out there just to stay over just wait days things go ahead you're above 3,000 feet you could orbit there and you use the okay the ops why don't we do this while we orbit above it maybe the winds will die down you can go ahead and pick them up sir maybe take off okay [Music] our crews try to be as prepared as they possibly can but you never really know everything it was important to me to let them know exactly what I expected of them that and that was I need you on scene I need you to be there in case things get worse but don't push it too hard I'm already bleeding so is it good if you start running now I feel comfortable a little bit scared but I'm gonna go do this because you know these these people are counting on us it makes you evaluate what you're getting into as a pilot not only is it my duty the grant helps save these people but it's also my responsibility as a pilot to make sure that my crew stays safe and that we can get back home it was freezing fight negative 20 degrees Celsius with a 60 knot crosswind blowing snow those conditions are something you read about and something you don't fly in [Music] all right at 20:30 d-17 affords 50 foot fishing vessel run aground hundred thirteen miles south-southwest of here for POV they have survival suits so we get out there they find the vessel they can get down to it because of the winds they said it was really really sporty we'd come the decision once we launched the second aircraft that we're gonna basically keep coverage with a sixty on scene so as soon as the second crew went out there we called in another crew to engage and talk about the situation in on-scene conditions airspeed indicator around 95 knots trying to do a hoist no opportunity whatsoever put the trail line down with the ton of wave bags on it just blew right back to the tail so the real deal serious stuff we're not out there right now trying to do a hoist or orbiting in case they come off because we're worried as soon as they hit the water they're gonna be gone and we're never gonna see them again so we're gonna want to be in a position to strike pretty fast so we're trying to keep a hundred percent coverage and literally when those guys leave you're there it's nasty to flight crews that came back he saw it in their face seeing that real deal be careful yeah we were really counting on that third crew to be the crew that hoisted these folks we knew that the second crew was there just to kind of be ready in case things went worse but we were counting on the third crew being the ones that get them out of there we had already launched two helicopters out there they've been unable to hoist the individuals off the boat because of 90-plus knot winds we do a lot of severe weather in Alaska but 92 plus mass is something I've actually never heard of he knew was gonna be a turbulent area and now I've flown through some bad turbulence before but those conditions are something you read about and something you don't fly in because I put the other 60 out they got three hours and are basically doing passing in the sky I'd like the full coverage when the Sun comes up if these guys are not on the boat yeah we're all daylight time all right anytime you send another crew out into a position into a situation that an earlier crews done successful there's a lot of things that that I'm worried about number one is are they gonna feel extra pressure to to get the job done I really didn't want our crews pushing too hard and God forbid crashing the helicopter honey what I'm hearing about guys getting sick and stuff it's probably good thing that we started it ready to just start believing crews here's what we figure out what's going on and take off top by that time we had called every h-60 pilot and crew member because we knew this was going to be an all-hands-on-deck type evolution we grabbed a couple pilots that were scheduled to go off island on leave call the mints and I'm sorry you'll have to take your vacation some other time we need you now we were launching aircraft in planning and then we've heard the second Mayday call for a second SAR case [Music] Z okay we currently have a 60 on-scene was the fish investor Kimberly but we just received another mayday call from another fishing vessel the fishing vessel heritage we just launched another helicopter to the fishing vessel Kimberly about as soon as they got airborne we got pretty bad Mayday call that came over with a fishing vessel heritage saying they were taking on water they didn't know if they could stay afloat and it sounded pretty serious the water coming down over [Music] well really stretched thin with the first case but when the second case popped up we really started scrambling [Music] we got about halfway to scene and we started hearing the fishing vessel heritage saying that they were taking on water the engine room was flooded they had a 20 degree list and pretty much dead in the water [Music] we had already launched on the fishing vessel Kimberly that was a ground on the southwest corner of Shelikof Strait and about 20 minutes into flight we heard a second Mayday and kind of figured out that that second case was only about 50 miles from where we were started to discuss them you know which one is really the more important case at this point you know we got guys who ground and we got guys who were probably going in the water so we made bass that 90-degree left-hand turn and made our way towards the heritage we start descending through the clouds and as we start approaching the boat I see these flashing lights in the water at first we thought the flashlights might be buoys we realized pretty quickly they were actually strobe lights from people in the water it turns out the fishing vessel had completely sunk in 25 minutes and we had two people in the water and a life raft five people in it we immediately knew that we had to get the people out of the water first the people in liferaft although cold we're in last a lot longer than folks in water that's you know 32 degrees or less in 32 degree water - even with a survival suit survivability is pretty limited in calm water these people were in 25-foot swells with waves breaking over their head we actually saw both survivors get tumbled in breaking waves while we're doing our checklist recipes head was a complete party / director Toma - the rescue swimmer Carter take cover somebody's gone out the door below check we came up with the direct deployment of the rescue swimmer so he's not going to detach from the hoist he's just gonna go straight down throw a rescue strap around the survivor and then be hoisted right back into the aircraft it's usually the fastest way to pull someone out of the water I got lowered down with direct deployment immediately after getting in the water my hands start going them right off the bat my heart starts racing a little bit I know this is a serious situation for them I swam up to a first survivor and try to get the the quick strap around her head like I said my hands were numb my my goggles or where I stopped but once I verified that I had everything on properly a games ready for pickup break5 there were survivor out of the water survivor coming up Beauty down as the voice continued to go on my gloves my my face was saturated the rescue swimmers gloves and and his mask Praxis saturated and freezing when I reached out to grab the survivor I couldn't feel my hand anymore and I couldn't feel where the button was on the switch that was in my hand so after we had her in the cabin and put her over in the corner and started getting her warmed up I then tried to warm up my own hand because I couldn't feel it enough to make the next hoisting evolution a safe one it was probably only a minute but it felt like a world it felt like ten minutes that I was trying to just warm my hand up enough that I would be able to do the next toy safely the hard part was looking out the door seeing the man that I'm wanting to save and not being able to because my hand was too cold to doing but I pulled off my voice ting blows I was able to get my hand warmed up and we went back there for the next guy and tortured butter serratus at two o'clock you can pick it boys have target site load checks complete silver is going down Roger we brings the same procedure with the direct deployment I swam up to it immediately I noticed that he was in a more serious state of hypothermia his arms were clinched close to his chest his eyes were a little glazed over so again I tried to work as quickly as I could I got the strop attached to them took a few waves and we were wasted into the cabin pulled him to the back of the cabin and then called hoist complete and that was both survivors in the cabin got him over under the troop seat and started getting him warmed up as best we could and at that point found out that there was another fishing vessel was coming on scene back good got that big decoder helicopter go ahead when he finished his second voiced the fishing vessel was only about 400 yards away from where the life raft was I was amazed how fast they were able to pick up the five survivors they're like man they already get those guys and so we called him on the radio Mike yeah we got five people on board and we knew everyone was safely count of four is just a real relief [Music] got back on back in Kodiak and taxied in once we got out of the aircraft we got the survivors to medical assistance with the woman that were on scene just really makes me feel good to come back and know that everyone's coming home safe tonight including my crew are you feeling warmed up how your fingers fingers and toes don't feel too bad yeah my name is jonathan Cutrone and i am a fisherman on the vessel heritage got so cold they couldn't control the pendant anymore and I had I had to do something because I couldn't lower the swimmer and raise him up so I probably only waited like an extra thirty seconds or so but like so much longer I'm just sitting there trying to get it warmed up there's nothing I could do but yeah I guess you just quickly as we could you know we started taking on water the generator shut down all the lights went out and then the steering went down we knew that we were toast we were listening really bad at that point it was going under so we all jumped up I grabbed my wallet I was thinking about grabbing my computer when I was in the water I realized that that thing was not very important and they finally called back from the boat there was five people in the raft and five people got none that was a huge weight off of our shoulders yeah yeah that was that was actually my first choice my first operational hoist okay yeah that's my first staircase so that was that was a lot of fun knows a good one right on yeah 60 79 winds and 30-foot seas yeah that was pretty good we were getting the life raft ready and that was the last guy Sara and I were just barely able to pull ourselves out the last second and when I poke my head into the water all I could see where it wasn't rigging at the top of the rigging and strobe lights all around and I didn't know which one was a raft and which one were you know empty suits and what have you so I just kind of put my head back and try to stay calm you know just getting a wave in my mouth you know salt water in my mouth and just trying to breathe and calm my heartbeat check my thoughts you know enjoy the the last remaining moments of my life potential life weird no water for about 20 or 22 5 minutes I saw the life raft but it was too far for me to get to I had my strobe light on I held it in the air and just waited for the Coast Guard to come we have finally that sodium light hovered on me and I was getting pretty cold I was starting to shake uncontrollably like I knew that hyperthermia was coming soon but I was hanging out with the Coast Guard son you know somebody you came in and you gave me smiles like that's so cool yeah all right to meet you see what she could have been under better conditions than I've ever seen we were extremely lucky with the Coast Guard just to no it's another lifeline yeah when you're bobbing around in the water and you see the helicopter it's it's a great feeling [Music] some point during your tour here you're gonna be pushed to your limits it beyond and tonight's one of those nights we're all a little nervous you could look at in everybody's eyes you could tell okay this is it this is the a game let's go [Music] ops everyone else loving it out in those winds and conditions that third crew that was going on scene got diverted we closed that case down so when we got one up on the kimberley once we were confident that we had all seven crew members from the fishing vessel heritage safe we heaved desire relief on that case and went back to our original problem we still had four people in very dire straits up there on the fishing vessel Kimberly just a few thoughts from my perspective but you've all heard me say there's a couple times at some point during your tour here you're gonna be pushed to your limits and beyond and tonight's one of those nights when the case really gets tough and the challenges really come hot and heavy you really have to be ready and a couple cruise tonight found out what it's like to be pushed to their limits and have to come back unsuccessful but they made the right decision they made the right choices so we're still in the game still doing a great job out there but you got to be ready to go at a moment's notice all right if nobody is sending other questions like this we'll call it good get to work it was actually pretty funny because I was sleeping pretty good and the audio calls me he says hey Jim we need you to come in for a side case and I was still pretty craggy and just responded why are you calling me I don't have duty he's like hey I know we need a lot of crews right now come on in and I jumped up in Kim's work how are you feeling oh good okay now to quit the crew rest at least I want to say maybe a 2 for me or whatever you're thinking I likes there we go Oh scary sir yeah we're going to early Portage Bay yeah miss Jenson had just returned from the case he was the second to out there and yeah he was pretty he was shaken but some of the most challenging environment he's ever flown and he told me exactly what he saw where was that what he encountered so here's the deal we saw peak winds at 90 90 knots but it's really gusty and then all these kind of coves right here are all full of sea ice and it's this real kind of wispy fog that's just being blown you know it's half sea spray and half fog I was able to talk to Jim and Jess together I told them on-scene conditions no joke turbulence no joke icing the conditions here really good but I'm seeing their pre treacherous of course we wanted to get out there as quickly as we can but you know the weather was so demanding that yet we're all a little nervous you could look good in everybody's eyes you could tell okay this is it this is the a-game let's go [Music] when we took off I'm still tonight Tom it's still dark the big thing though for my crew in particular was we knew we would be arriving on scene with some daylight hours that's a huge benefit and us being able successful completion we climbed up to 5,000 feet and we only had 10 knots of wind and we're almost disappointed going well this is not so bad but come to find out it's just because we haven't really closed the gap on the 115 mile range and about halfway there we started picking out winds at 30 knots 40 knots suddenly come 50 knots 60 knots and once we got below 2,000 feet or so it became a little bit more steady still turbulent but you know light to moderate at best what was amazing was we picked up the life raft from quite a ways out and we couldn't see the boat that's how well it blended into the background because it was totally covered in ice we did happen to notice as we got close there was one individual who was standing outside the raft we started looking for places to hoist me down so I can make communications and see what we could do from there we got ourselves into position about 100 feet directly over the vessel we thought we could make a safe deployment to the frozen sea ice the first thing I'm thinking is get myself secure the footing good make sure that I'm good send the hoist hook back up and go assess the situation when I initially approach him come to find out it was the captain of the vessel he was severely hypothermic at that point he advised me there was one member in the raft who was the incapacitate couldn't get out of the raft and there was two on the vessel itself next thing I did was climbed up checked it with the two guys in there made sure they were good to go I asked one of them to assist me with the elderly gentleman in the go down that's going down right the gentleman who remained in the raft when I came up on him he let me know he can move his lower extremities you could tell he was fatigued and I said well walk get you out of there just hang tight a minute I was able to get the gentleman up the other individual grabbed his feet and then I repositioned grabbed him around by his trunk and then I said him in the basket once the basket came in the cabin I realize something have to get this guy out of there yeah and being that he had no use of his legs and that the deck was iced up I knew is gonna be a struggle [Music] so I got him totally help me as best he could get him out once the basket came in the cabin I realize I don't have to get this guy out of there being that he had no use of his legs I knew was gonna be a struggle you do it good Josh you did good right now it's a lot of work once we got the first driver set up in the cabin and seat after that struggle was over we just decided that we're gonna keep doing basket hoist [Music] the captain of the vessel was the next one go up they had on his nose it looked like the beginnings of frostbite that's a sure sign he's got a lot of hypothermia a lot of exposure we started heist them got him up bringing it in the cabin door and I start slipping on the ice what was happening instead of Navasky being pulled in he was almost pulling himself out of the cabin because the decks were so slick he asked us up front to control the hoist the e/m safe on bomp bomp bomp and microfighters basically bumping the hoist down for him because he needed both hands and you can actually see how he's using his foot and braced himself so he doesn't pull himself out of the cabin survivor it's nice to have a little narration coming from the co-pilot when you're ready as we continue to the basket hosting for two more times the other two men very very quick I couldn't believe how fast Josh got that done [Music] then we just got cheap back with a bare hook recovering everything worked out I got inside the cabin I was covered in ice at this time I still had not regained any kind of dexterity in my hands I was having to ask Josh to open up the bags for the blankets you ready for a report like just another petty officer Big Daddy nicely done once my hands came back two main thing was getting the guys out of the wet clothing gave him liquids it's lukewarm well liquids not cold AHA both of the elderly gentlemen their core temperature had dropped free low they were all dehydrated you can tell they were in pretty dire straits but these gentlemen were fighters they did everything that they could in their power to prepare and try to be in the right conditions and unfortunately worked out [Music] we're coming feet-first guys [Applause] what happens Richard Sharpe crew member on the Kimberley all I could say I said if it wasn't for the Coast Guard people debated we went ashore started hitting rocks pretty hard on the bottom then after that we were getting bounced around pretty good solid hit us that she would roll quite a bit then we did lean over a pharaoh don't look good I've got nothing but the highest praise for the Coast Guard and I don't know any other name you could call him besides he rolls unbelievable everybody was very relieved when we finally got him back here you know we don't want to leave anybody behind and obviously it worked out for the best in this case I took a whole Air Station of 350 to really make this happen and that's why we all come up here this is the big ballgame this is where great recipes are made Hey thank out his job was just an amazing heroic effort Herculean effort by everybody involved to do all the things that needed to be done great job thanks Boris awesome [Music] there's a tremendous amount of pride in making it to a knife like that the team effort aspect of this it's always going on most people just see the helicopter on scene they see the c-130 on scene but they don't see is the network the team of people that are working behind the scenes no single flight could ever happen if it weren't for that teamwork but tonight was an example of how it's really crucial for everybody to be working together to serve a purpose more than yourself and better than yourself is why you do this job I think it's a common cold amongst all Coast Guardsmen there's a purpose a higher calling to try to help other people and I think that's what it comes down to is trying to have puzzle

Channel: DANGER TV

Views: 367,503

Rating: 4.8973927 out of 5

Keywords: Coast Guard, mayday at sea, US Coast Guard, United States Coast Guard, Coast Guard Alaska, US Coast Guard Alaska, United States Coast Guard Alaska, Alaska, Kodiak, Kodiak Alaska, Coast Guard Rescue, full episodes of Coast Guard Alaska, full episodes of tv show coast guard alaska, coast guard rescue, coast guard search and rescue, helicopter rescue, danger, dangertv, danger tv, Danger, DangerTV, Danger TV, helicopter search & rescue, Alaskan waters, search & rescue, ship lost

Id: 1z39Zbpb9yU

Length: 42min 33sec (2553 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 13 2020