PORTSMOUTH, Va. – A Coast Guard helicopter crew located and rescued a man at 3:48 a.m. Sunday after his boat capsized near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.
A Virginia Beach 911 dispatcher relayed to Sector Hampton Roads watchstanders at 1:45 a.m. that a man called in from the hull of his capsized boat reporting that he was near the first island of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel. Due to reference to the first island and other pieces of information, responders believed he was actually near the CBBT.
Norfolk Fire-Rescue marine unit and Station Portsmouth crews launched to search near the HRBT and Station Little Creek and Air Station Elizabeth City, N.C., rescue crews searched near the CBBT.
The MH-60T Jayhawk rescue helicopter crew located the mildly hypothermic man near the CBBT, hoisted him to safety and took him to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital.
“With little information on where the individual was, the search and rescue controllers used their knowledge of the area to determine he was at a different location than what was reported,” said Lt. Michael Snyder, the command duty officer at Sector Hampton Roads.
