Crime & Safety

(VIDEO) Helicopter Rescue from Long Island Sound

Greenwich Marine Police unit helps Rye PD rescue trio caught in wind-whipped rising tides.

Marine police units from Greenwich, Rye, NY, Westchester County Police battled the wind-shipped waters of Long Island Sound to rescue three fishermen stranded on a rock off the coast of Rye, late Wednesday morning.

According to a Rye Police report, Martin Butler of Philips Lane, called about 12:42 p.m. to report three people stranded on the rock and were being swamped by the incoming tide. The trio - a woman and two men clad in rain gear - were spotted near 16 Philips Ln.

Greenwich Marine Police Sgt. James Bonney said the 30 mph winds created 8-foot seas which hampered the efforts of the GPD police boat to arrive at the scene, about a quarter-mile from Rye Playland. He said Rye called Greenwich for assistance and it took nearly a half-hour to make the trip. Rye Police officer Michael Kenny hopped onto the 34-foot Greenwich Police boat to help negotiate it along the rocky shoreline.

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Bonney said that he threw three life jackets to the victims. "They launched me in an 8-foot dinghy to get the woman on the rocks. She was in the boat but we were swamped by a wave," Bonney said. The unidentified woman was pulled out by Greenwich officers Joh Repik and Frank Di Pietro. She was transferred to a US Coast Guard rescue boat and brought to shore, Bonney said.

The two unidentified men were plucked from the waters by a Westchester County Police Department Aviation unit. All three were brought to a local hospital for treatment of exposure.

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Bonney estimated the water temperature to be 67 degrees. "But with 25 knot winds - 30 mph winds, you get cold." He added, "With the east winds, it's frickin' rough, waves crashing over the top of our boat."

According to Kieran O'Leary of the Westchester County Office of Communications, said the fishermen apparently walked from Rye Town Park out to a rock to fish.


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