Coast Guard medevacs 1, 4 cited with underage drinking near Wilmington NC

WILMINGTON, N.C. &ampmdash The Coast Guard medevaced a 19-year-aged male right after noticing a commotion aboard a sixteen-foot skiff around Wrightsville Seashore, N.C., Tuesday.

At around two:30 p.m., crewmembers aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Bayberry have been on their way to Coast Guard Station Wrightsville Seaside travelling along the internal coastal waterway when they noticed a sixteen-foot skiff in the center of the channel.

&ampldquoWe saw people in the drinking water about the vessel and a thing just didn&amprsquot seem right,&amprdquo said Petty Officer third Class Aaron Phillips, a boatswain&amprsquos mate aboard the Bayberry. &ampldquoAs we received nearer to the vessel somebody aboard a personal watercraft was yelling at us expressing that we required to end.&amprdquo

The skiff drifted to shallow water just before the Bayberry crew could pull up alongside, so a very first support licensed crewmember was taken aboard the private watercraft to see if everyone required medical focus. Following arriving on-scene, he noticed an unconscious specific, not breathing and with no pulse. He started executing CPR until finally the topic regained consciousness.

&ampldquoImmediately subsequent, he became aggressive and started fighting with all of us aboard the skiff,&amprdquo said Senior Chief Petty Officer Christopher Groom, the officer-in-cost of the Bayberry.

A good Samaritan towed the skiff closer to the Bayberry but since of the struggling aboard the skiff, the skiff took on h2o and sank. All six passengers and the Bayberry crewmember went into the h2o.

The Bayberry crew rescued all of the people in the water.

A Coast Guard Station Wrightsville Seashore 41-foot Utility Boat crew and a New Hanover County Sheriff&amprsquos crew arrived on scene. A sheriff joined the Coast Guard crew aboard the UTB to transport the 19-year-previous male and one other non-compliant boater to the station. The formerly unconscious boater was transferred to waiting EMS and the county sheriff took the other.

The 4 other boaters had been transported aboard the Bayberry to station Wrightsville Seaside.

All six boaters have been underage and 4 had been cited with underage consuming by the New Hanover County Sheriff Deputy.

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