Dramatic video captures the moment a US Coast Guard chopper lifts a man stuck on a sinking boat to safety about 40 miles off the coast of Florida.
The newly released footage shows a guardsman being lowered into the Gulf of Mexico from a Coast Guard helicopter around 2 p.m. Saturday far off the coast of Crystal River, according to a release.
The chopper and a plane were sent out of the Coast Guard station in Clearwater after getting a distress call about a boater in a “partially submerged vessel,” the release said.
The boat was taking in water through a crack in the hull, according to the agency.
A rescue crew located the stranded boater and hoisted him to safety, the footage shows, with no serious injuries reported in the incident.
“The distressed boater did an outstanding job by wearing his life jacket and having a marine-grade radio on board his vessel,” Coast Guard Lt. Casey Skomer said in a statement.
“These items contributed to him being rescued swiftly and safely.”
The boater was not identified.
Last week, another Coast Guard rescue squad evacuated an injured crew member from an oil tanker off the coast of Texas and delivered him to a Galveston hospital, where he is in stable condition.
Earlier in the month, the Clearwater station reported that a couple was rescued off the Florida coast after their 26-foot boat capsized 18 miles out into the Gulf.
