Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter file photo
PORTSMOUTH, Va. — The Coast Guard and other agencies are searching for a missing teenager off Gloucester Point, Virginia, Friday.
Watchstanders in the Coast Guard Sector Hampton Roads Command Center in Portsmouth were notified at about 4:40 p.m. that a 13-year-old went missing while swimming with family members at Gloucester Point Beach.
The missing teenager is a white male wearing a red, white and blue bathing suit.
Sector Hampton Roads watchstanders issued an urgent marine information broadcast, then launched an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew from Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, North Carolina, and a 29-foot Response Boat-Small crew from Coast Guard Station Milford Haven in Hudgins, Virginia, at about 5 p.m.
The Coast Guard crews arrived on scene and joined boat crews from York-Poquoson Sheriff’s Office, York County Fire Department, Abingdon Fire Department, Gloucester County Sheriff’s Office, and the Virginia Marine Resources Commission in searching for the boy.
“We are working together with local agencies and are doing everything in our power to find this boy,” said Coast Guard Cmdr. Peggy Britton, search and rescue mission coordinator for the case.
