A US Coast Guard helicopter crew carried out a challenging nighttime rescue on October 16 after receiving a mayday call from a sinking boat in the Pacific Ocean, approximately 140 miles off the coast of Ensenada, Mexico. The four-member crew took off from Ventura, California, around 2 a.m. to search for people stranded in the water.
With no moonlight, Lieutenant Miyako Miller piloted the helicopter using night-vision goggles and navigated through the darkness until the crew spotted faint lights from survivors’ life vests. More than two dozen people were believed to have been thrown into the ocean, with some clinging to buoys, debris and one another amid waves measuring six to eight feet.
Rescue swimmer Josh Law, 24, was lowered on a cable into the rough sea while the helicopter hovered around 40 feet above the water. For approximately two hours, he swam to survivors one by one and helped secure them in a rescue basket, which lifted them into the aircraft. Law was the only rescuer entering the water during the operation.
Despite exhaustion and limited sleep, Law continued rescuing survivors. His dry suit filled with water up to his knees, and he later treated three people for serious wounds during the flight. The Coast Guard said some injuries were consistent with shark bites.
The crew rescued 16 people before flying to San Diego, where ambulances were waiting. With the helicopter’s cabin full and fuel running low, the team had to leave the search area. Survivors reported that as many as 27 people had been aboard the boat.
The US Coast Guard, Mexican authorities and the US Navy subsequently searched more than 2,441 square miles of ocean. However, the remaining 11 people were not found, highlighting the dangers faced by both those caught in maritime emergencies and the crews conducting rescue missions in extreme conditions.