USCG Assist from the air
All this talk of the Coast Guard saves reminded me of something that happened several years ago. I was conducting an airborne inspection of an airborne instrument landing system to the airport in Arlington, WA. There were several repetitive runs required across the localizer course that took me over the waters SW of Paine Field. During one of these runs, while I was checking out the boats anchored and cruising below, one of the boats launched a red flare into the air. Since I was not sure which boat it came from, I discussed the event with the copilot and we continued our work on our designated tracks which would bring us back over the same area 5 minutes later.
As we overflew the area a second time, I clearly observed a second flare. This one was launched from a white boat at anchor. Nothing appeared out of the ordinary with the boat at the time…no smoke, no listing, no debris in the water. I was careful to take note of which white boat in a grouping of about eight white boats fired the flare.
I advised the Seattle Approach Control Air Traffic Controller that we had observed a flare being launched from a vessel and provided the coordinates. He replied that he’d advise the USCG of the event.
About 10-15 minutes later, ATC advised us that the USCG vessel was rounding a point to the west in the sound and told us the USCG was asking us to lead them to the boat in question. We broke off our work and proceeded to the point, finding the orange vessel speeding along toward the vessels. We circled the USCG, then bee-lined to the flare-shooter and circled. We repeated this maneuver until the CG approached and rafted with the correct vessel, then we continued our job.
Five minutes later, we got another call from ATC stating that the CG wanted to verify that we were sure he approached the correct vessel. He said the skipper on the boat denied shooting flares. I assured him that I was 100% sure that the second flare came from that vessel the CG was rafted with. He passed this info to the CG, we completed our work and departed the area.
Later that evening, I completed my routine paperwork describing my day’s workload and included the delay/diversion in the commentary. I decided to call the USCG duty officer to see what the outcome of the event was. When I explained who I was and summarized the event, the duty officer started laughing.
She said that after we identified the vessel, they boarded and interviewed the Capt. The Capt denied shooting any flares. After they got confirmation that they had the right vessel, they turned up the heat and asked more questions and the first mate spilled the beans.
There were two guys onboard fishing illegally. Their net got wrapped around their prop and they were dead in the water. The captain didn’t want to ask for help because he was afraid he’d get busted for fishing illegally. The captain’s plan (or lack thereof) apparently didn’t go over well with the first mate and a mutiny began. The first mate eventually fired the flares contrary to the instructions of the captain. No word on the enforcement actions coming from the event, but apparently they were towed to safety.
Over the years, I’ve found myself in situations where I have alerted pilots to prevent them from landing without their landing gear extended, assisted lost pilots in finding a suitable airport, talked pilots through aircraft operating procedures from the control tower and made the initial report on many fires in wilderness areas. But this was my only maritime assist.
