MIAMI – The Coast Guard rescued two men from a capsized pleasure craft half a mile East of Bakers Haulover Marina Thursday night.
Renier Chao, 57, and Valentino Castro, 32, called 911 emergency operators at approximately 9:30 p.m. and reported their vessel was taking on water near Haulover. The cell phone apparently cut out during the conversation and that was the only information emergency operators were able to receive.
Emergency operators immediately requested the Coast Guards assistance.
With very little information, the Coast Guard immediately launched rescue crews from stations Fort Lauderdale and Miami Beach, as well as an HH-65 Dolphin helicopter from Air Station Miami and began to search while search and rescue coordinaters began triangulating the global position of the last call placed from the cell phone.
The Coast Guard helicopter located two people clinging to the hull of an overturned vessel on the first leg of their search pattern shortly before 10:30 p.m.
The aircrew then vectored in a rescue boat from station Miami Beach where the two uninjured men were then pulled from the water and taken to Bakers Haulover Marina.
The 21-foot capsized boat was taken to the 79th Street Marina by a commercial salvage company.
The Coast Guard recommends all boaters to have a working VHF-marine radio and an EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon) as well as all required safety equipment. Fortunately for these two men the cell phone trace was successful, however, cell phones are often unreliable for these types of situations.
Source: USCG D7 Public Affairs
