CLEVELAND — A U.S. Coast Guard rescue crew from Coast Guard Air Station Detroit hoisted an injured man off of Lake St. Clair in Ontario, Canada, earlier today after the all-terrain vehicle on which he and three friends were riding overturned.
The group was on an ice fishing trip when the accident occurred about 2 miles from shore.
At about 8:45 a.m., the search-and-rescue controllers at the Coast Guard’s 9th District Command Center received a request for assistance from Joint Rescue Coordination Centre Trenton, Ontario, which was relaying the report from the Ontario Provincial Police.
After learning of the accident, the command center contacted Sector Detroit personnel who diverted a Coast Guard Air Station Detroit MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew already in flight. When the crew arrived on scene at 9:05 a.m., a rescue swimmer was deployed to assess and stabilize the man, a U.S. citizen, before he was hoisted aboard and transported to Canadian EMTs at Mitchell’s Bay Marina in Mitchell’s Bay, Ontario.
A few of the Coast Guard’s many safety tips for outdoorsmen and ice enthusiasts are to never venture out alone and to always have a way to communicate distress to authorities should an emergency occur.
