PIB Ice Rescue

I guess they were asking for it!


Coast Guard uses airboat to rescue pair lost on ice off South Bass Island
SCOT ALLYN, Morning Journal Writer
03/10/2008

PUT-IN-BAY -- Coast Guard officials used an airboat to rescue two men from the ice more than three miles northwest of South Bass Island Saturday afternoon during the fiercest snowstorm of the winter.

The men, ages 34 and 44, were stranded 3.25 miles offshore after becoming lost on their all-terrain vehicle, according to U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Christopher Channels. Their names were not released, but one is a resident of Put-in-Bay and the other is a resident of Roseville, Ohio, located south of Zanesville in Muskingum County, Channels said.

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The men had departed from the South Bass Island State Park boat launch ramp about 7:30 a.m. Saturday to go ice fishing, according to Channels. By 11:20 a.m. they had become disoriented in the wind and swirling snow, unable to see the island. One of the men dialed 9-1-1 on his cell phone, and the Marblehead station of the U.S. Coast Guard responded after being alerted by the Ottawa County Sheriff's Office.

''We estimated visibility between 100 and 150 yards,'' Channels said. The Marblehead station launched its 20-foot airboat from Catawba island and worked with the Put-in-Bay Fire Department on the rescue. The airboat, with an aluminum hull, a huge fan on the back to propel the craft and an enclosed cabin, can travel over ice or open water, according to Channels.

While the Coast Guard boat was en route, the Put-in-Bay Fire Department used their own airboat to search the coastline of the island for tracks, Channels said.

''The men said the wind was in their faces as they left the island, so we knew to head north,'' he said. The two rescue teams were aided by a good Samaritan who searched with his own all-terrain vehicle.

Saturday's storm conditions made the search difficult, Channels said.

''The wind chill was four degrees above zero when our crew went out,'' he said. ''We had to go slowly, since we were hitting ice and open water. The ice develops pressure ridges, which look like small mountain ranges, and you don't want to hit those at high speed.''

The lost men used a cell phone to help guide the searchers.

''They called and said they could hear our airboat, so we knew we were in the right area,'' Channels said. By 1:30 p.m., six hours after the men had been out in the storm, a Coast Guard crew member spotted them in a break in the wind.

The men were mildly hypothermic but otherwise unharmed, Channels said. They were taken to the Put-Iin-Bay Fire Department, where they were checked for feeling at their extremities and frostbite, and released, Channels said.