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By this morning, personnel in the Coast Guard Fifth District located and assisted four people in a disabled pleasure craft and airlifted a sick crewman from a commercial fishing vessel.
The evenings first search and rescue case involved a 26-foot sailing vessel from Norfolk, Va., with one person, David Frazer, aboard. Frazers father notified the Coast Guard last night that his son was en route from Norfolk to Florida, and he had not heard from him since Dec. 3, when he called from Morehead City, NC. The sailors phone records indicate that he last made a cell phone call on Sunday in the vicinity of Atlantic Beach, NC. Coast Guard units in North and South Carolina are checking with local marinas and boaters to try and locate Frazer and his green-and-white, unnamed vessel.
Shortly after receiving the call about Frazier, the Coast Guard responded to another search and rescue call from a North Carolina man who reported that a friends 19-foot pleasure craft was disabled in the vicinity of the Little River in the Albemarle Sound, but the caller could not find the vessel. Coast Guard Station Elizabeth City, NC, established communications with the missing boat, which had been fishing with four people aboard, including a 12-year-old child, when its engine became disabled. The station launched a 25-foot response boat, which located the stricken vessel and towed it back to the station.
Later that evening, the Coast Guard received two calls from commercial fishing vessels offshore whose crewmen who were experiencing medical emergencies. The fishing vessel Atlantic Runner reported that a man on board had had a heart attack 10 to 12 nautical miles off of Cape Lookout, NC, and CPR failed to revive him. A 47-foot motor lifeboat from Sector North Carolina and the Coast Guard Cutter Block Island responded to the fishing vessel, where they found the crewmember already deceased. The Block Island escorted the fishing vessel into Fort Macon, NC.
The Coast Guard also received a request for medical assistance from the commercial fishing vessel Leader, which was 45 nautical miles southeast of Cape May, NJ. The vessel reported that a 46-year-old crewmember was experiencing abdominal pains and was vomiting. An HH-65C Dolphin helicopter from Air Station Atlantic City, NJ, responded, hoisting the injured man aboard and returning him to the Air Station, where an ambulance took him to a local hospital.
The Coast Guard also continues to search for the sailboat Pride, which left from Lewes, Del., on Nov. 30 for Panama, and did not check in as scheduled on Dec. 2. A C-130 Hercules was launched this morning from Air Station Elizabeth City, NC, to continue the search off the coast of North Carolina.