Fishermen rescued two hours after mayday call 15 miles off Pasco County
HOLIDAY, Fla. - An afternoon fishing trip with five friends became a rescue situation when their boat capsized 15 miles from the coast of Holiday Saturday. The Pasco County Sheriff's Office corporal who rescued them says it's pure luck they were found nearly two hours after sending out a distress call.
Video from Pasco County Sheriff's Office Corporal Mitch Bollenbacher's body camera video shows the group clinging to their upside-down boat after it capsized.
"I told them the day I got them on the boat that they were definitely lucky and they needed to go buy a lottery ticket," Cpl. Mitch Bollenbacher said.
The sheriff's office had very little information about where the group went overboard.
"They thought they got the whole distress call out because he was able to say it, but the radio either lost power or he didn't key up for the whole transmission and all the Coast Guard got was 'Mayday. There's a boat taking on water and they're about to go down,'" Bollenbacher said.
The distress call pinged off a specific radio tower. The tower became the center of the Coast Guard's search area, which is considered a very wide net for any rescue operation.
"If you don't get your position out, people go days without being rescued," Bollenbacher said.
Just two hours in, the rescue boat came upon them. All five were safely loaded into the boat with each person wearing a life jacket, which is something Corporal Bollenbacher says can make all the difference.
"Make sure you have life jackets. Make sure you know where your safety equipment is. Know how to use it. Let someone know where you're going and when you're going to be back," Bollenbacher said.
It's still unclear what caused the boat to start taking on water. The group did have what's called an EPIRB, which is a GPS locator. It got separated from the group when the boat capsized.
The sheriff's office says to make sure you have the EPIRB strapped to someone in case of an emergency like this one.