This was not a drill.
Members of US Coast Guard Air Station Atlantic Metropolis nixed a Fleet Week search and rescue demonstration in Manhattan on Memorial Day for the actual factor — greater than 100 miles away.
The Atlantic Metropolis unit, generally known as the “Blackjacks,” have been diverted to a misery name 20 miles off the Jersey shore on Monday after a radio transmission that seemed like “Help” was transmitted simply earlier than midday, a US Coast Guard rep instructed The Submit.
“Any sign that there could be potential distress, that’s enough for us to launch [a search and rescue operation] and go search,” the rep mentioned, including that no different “correlating” proof, akin to a lacking particular person or lacking boat, have been reported.
The investigation – which was carried out within the space of Barnegat Gentle, Atlantic Metropolis and Cape Could in New Jersey, was referred to as off simply after 3 p.m., the rep added. Coast Guard Station Cape Can also responded to the search.
The Fleet Week demonstration, slated to begin at 2 p.m., was set to contain a dummy doll being rescued within the water by a Coast Guard member dropping in from a helicopter.
Some US Coast Guard members at Pier 86 — the place the demonstration was deliberate to happen after the annual Memorial Day commemoration ceremony on the Intrepid Museum — instructed The Submit they have been unsurprised the diversion occurred because of the reputation of marine-related actions over the vacation weekend.
On Memorial Day weekend, there’s “more than a 50% chance that they are going to get diverted,” one Coast Guard member on the Pier 86 occasion mentioned.
“A lot of people’s boats have been up [out of the water] for the winter, and now they finally want to get out. Sometimes they don’t take enough fuel, or forget to check the electronics: it could be a number of things.”
An instance of frequent calls to the Coast Guard in the course of the busy vacation weekend are for disabled vessels – boats which may merely be adrift whereas passengers onboard are secure.
A number of individuals have been pulled from the water throughout the Mid-Atlantic area this weekend, however there haven’t been any experiences of lacking individuals, extreme accidents or deaths because of this, based on a Coast Guard rep.
Regardless of the sudden absence on the Memorial Day celebration in Manhattan, loads of different Coast Guard members crammed cubicles exterior the Intrepid Museum – together with divers based mostly in California and Hawaii.
Diver Richard Rudek, 24, instructed The Submit he assists in underwater upkeep operations – akin to underwater building, repairing buoys and different navigational instruments – in addition to search and restoration operations “relatively frequently.”
Rudek mentioned his crew went out to recuperate the wreckage of a 2024 helicopter crash in Kauai, Hawaii, which “helped to provide closure to the families.”
His favourite a part of his job, nevertheless, stays underwater navigation initiatives – the place “you never know what you’re going to get into.”
“Sometimes it’s zero [visibility], you’re in scuba [gear] and holding several thousand pound objects with, basically, balloons. Every job is super different,” he mentioned.
The Coast Guard’s Atlantic Strike Crew — which responds to fires, hurricanes, hazmat incidents and different emergencies from East Palestine’s practice derailment to the Los Angeles fires to the Baltimore Bridge collapse — was additionally in attendance on the fleet week occasion.
“Most Coasties join because they want to help,” mentioned Lieutenant Connie Tobler.
“The best part [of the job] is search and rescue,” mentioned Officer Bismarck Miranda, who recalled an operation a decade in the past through which he rescued a 4-year-old and their household 50 miles off the shore of Key West.
“Being able to rescue that and see the baby and the family come back to the United States safely — that was probably the best feeling.”
