Coast Guard Rescues 5 People When Boat Began Flooding

RUSKIN, FL — The Coast Guard assisted five people on a vessel taking on water near the Skyway Bridge Sunday afternoon.

A Coast Guard Station St. Petersburg 45-foot Response Boat arrived and provided assistance dewatering the 25-foot vessel and escorted it safely back to E.G. Simmons Regional Park in Ruskin.

Coast Guard Sector St. Petersburg received a distress call at around 11 a.m. that the vessel was flooding in the stern, which was caused by a cracked transom.

"The mariners' quick thinking to come up on plane and to contact the Coast Guard prevented this from being a much worse situation," said Petty Officer 2nd Class Andrew Crowton, coxswain of the boat crew.