Coast Guard searched 1,523 nautical miles for family in what may have been a hoax distress call
“We are asking for the public's assistance in determining the source of the calls and the nature of the distress.”
The Coast Guard and local rescue crews responded Saturday to a report that a small boat, carrying a man and three children, had capsized off the coast of Maine. The rescue crews searched the waters off Kennebunkport for 22 hours, but found nothing. Now, the Coast Guard says it is investigating the possibility that the call was a hoax. “We are asking for the public’s assistance in determining the source of the calls and the nature of the distress,” Capt. Brian Lefebvre, the commander for Coast Guard Sector Northern New England, said in a statement on Tuesday. “Additional information may aid in our closure of the case and offer a degree of finality to the many rescuers who dedicated their time and effort toward this search effort.” According to the Coast Guard, the radio distress call came in around 10:30 a.m. on Saturday from a man who reported his jon boat had capsized about 10 nautical miles off the coast of Kennebunkport. “I’m going to try and get the kids on the boat, on the top of the boat, lift them up, if possible,” the man says calmly in the mayday call, released by the Coast Guard. “If not, we’re all going to just huddle in the water.”The Coast Guard said it lost radio communications with the caller and conducted a search of 1,523 square nautical miles with local agencies on Saturday and Sunday.
The missing man and 3 kids were reportedly aboard a 14-ft boat wearing orange life jackets when they lost communication with the Coast Guard. #SAR #CoastGuard
— USCGNortheast (@USCGNortheast) October 5, 2019
.@USCGNortheast Cutter Reefshark to remain on scene and continue searching through the night, Stations South Portland and Portsmouth plan to complete their searches by 10pm. #SAR #CoastGuard
— USCGNortheast (@USCGNortheast) October 6, 2019
The search was suspended Sunday around 8 a.m. “pending new information.”
“We take all calls for help seriously,” Cdr. James McLay, the Search and Rescue Mission Coordinator at Sector Northern New England, said in a statement Sunday. “We utilized every resource at our disposal and applied an extraordinary amount of search effort to locate these boaters. If there was anyone in distress we gave them the best possible chance for rescue.”
Anyone with information about the incident is being asked to contact the Coast Guard at 207-741-5478.
