With sharks nearby, Good Samaritan, Coast Guard rescue two boaters off N.J.
U.S. Coast Guard members help rescue two passengers from a capsized boat off the New Jersey coast Friday morning. (Image courtesy of Sabrina Clarke/U.S. Coast Guard)
A potentially dangerous situation ended without incident Friday morning in the ocean off the Jersey Shore, authorities say.
Shortly after 9:30 a.m. Friday, the U.S. Coast Guard received a distress alert from passengers aboard a 35-foot center console boat 40 miles south of Sandy Hook, a federal park in extreme northern Monmouth County across from New York City, according to an agency release.
A Coast Guard HC-144 twin-engined aircraft from Air Station Cape Cod diverted to the area of the signal and discovered two people in a life raft near a capsized boat and its debris, the release says.
Meanwhile, a helicopter crew from Air Station Atlantic City aboard an MH-65 Dolphin arrived and was unable to deploy a rescue swimmer into the water due to visible sharks nearby.
Down below, a Good Samaritan aboard a fishing vessel rescued the two people floating in the life raft. A Coast Guard Sandy Hook boat crew then arrived and brought the two on board a 47-foot Motor Lifeboat.
They were transported back to Sandy Hook. No one was injured, and the cause of the sinking is unknown, authorities said.
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