Yacht Explodes Near Sandy Hook, NJ, Several Injured Passengers were on life rafts about 17.5 miles east of Sandy Hook, officials said
A yacht has exploded near Sandy Hook, N.J., injuring at least seven people, officials say.
According to the U.S. Coast Guard, 21 people were on the boat, called Blind Date, when it exploded at about 4:20 p.m. Monday.
Officials said all the passengers abandoned ship and were on life rafts in the water about 17.5 miles east of Sandy Hook.
“Twenty-one people have been accounted for, so we’re hoping for the best,” said Coast Guard Petty Officer Erik Swanson.
The Coast Guard is sending rescuers from several stations, and Swanson said a civilian in a sailing vessel was also on site, helping with the rescue.
24 hours later: Still the lead story on Local NY newscasts 5pm. Stations are playing the hoax call made to USCG Staten Island in the hope that someone will recognize this criminals voice. $3000 reward!
TV stations have a vested interest in tracking this guy since they got sucked into the story yesterday and responded witha huge helicopter response. Their pissed.
From the news stories it sounds like all the governments alphabet soup investigative folks are getting involved. FBI, etc. NYPD sent 3 helicopters plus marine units and Chief Ray Kelly is pissed.
If you think the USCG gets excited sampling oil spills and and tracing who is responsible, just wait for the tech tricks to come out, in hunting down this mook. Go Team.
Several news sources ask “Why didn’t the CG know this was a hoax from his demeanor”?
Reminds me of the only Mayday call I’ve ever made.
Long story short:
I was boating alone.
Beautiful summer day.
Narragansett Bay, within sight of Castle Hill CG Station.
Tired old speedboat I owned with a hot new engine.
Ripped the transom off.
In about 2 seconds I went from 40mph with a big grin, to being in thigh deep water.
Too far from shore to beach it, but close enough that I had tried.
I took a couple of seconds to slow my heart rate and made the call.
The CG immediately answered back with “Vessel in distress, the penalty for making a false Mayday call is a felony”.
I answered them: "This is XXX, If you look out your fucking window you’ll see that I have already sunk!"
When they arrived on-scene, they said I was too calm on the radio to be taken seriously.
Who knows! Maybe a commercial ship was offloading the drugs to a small boat and they wanted the distraction once they were done offloading. Im sure I saw that in a movie once or twice.
Or maybe they had one of those drug subs and they didn’t want any other vessels patrolling the area so they could land their drugs on Brighton Beach. The sub probably came from maybe Canada, cause the new canadian cocaine dealers are moving up in the world.
The U.S. Coast Guard said Thursday it has received more than 50 calls to its tip line about a false distress call of a yacht explosion that prompted massive rescue effort Monday off the coast of New Jersey.
Authorities have determined the hoax call came from somewhere between Staten Island, New York, and Sandy Hook, New Jersey, Coast Guard Petty Officer Jetta Disco told CNN.
Last year, the Coast Guard said, it and other state and local agencies fielded more than 60 suspected hoaxes in the northern New Jersey, New York City and Hudson River region. In May, a California man was sentenced to one year in federal prison and fined nearly $7,000 after pleading guilty to communicating hoax distress calls in 2010 and 2011.