Crime & Safety
Watch: Coast Guard Rescues Stranded Boaters In Gulf
Two men were rescued from the Gulf of Mexico by Coast Guard crews Tuesday, Feb. 28, as their boat was sinking.
HUDSON, FL – Two men were rescued from the Gulf of Mexico by Coast Guard crews Tuesday, Feb. 28, as their boat was sinking.
At about 1:45 p.m., the Pasco County Sheriff’s marine unit and the U.S. Coast Guard Sector St. Petersburg responded to a 911 call for help from a 44-foot Bayliner boat that was taking on water about 14 miles west of Hudson.
The Coast Guard dispatched a crew in an HC-130 Hercules helicopter from Air Station Clearwater and a 45-foot Coast Guard response boat to assist. The helicopter crew dropped dewatering pumps for the stranded boaters, who were able to find and plug the leak.
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The boaters, Ronald Letchner, 53, of Long Boat Key, and passenger, Hung Fang Nguyen, 46, who were uninjured, were taken off the boat. The sheriff’s marine unit then recovered the Coast Guard’s pumps while the Coast Guard vessel accompanied a salvage boat that towed the damaged Bayliner to the Port Hudson Marina.
Video via U.S. Coast Guard
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