Search-and-rescue officials in New York rescued two ice fishermen on Lake Erie Sunday night. The two fishermen had gotten stranded after the ice sheet they were on broke off and separated, leaving them a mile offshore with no way to return to land.
The joint operation involved the Erie County Sheriff’s Office and the United States Coast Guard, which received the initial call about the stranded fisherman around 6:30 p.m. Sunday. The USCG then called the Sheriff’s Office for assistance, according to ECSO public information officer Chris Horvatits.
The sheriff’s office contacted Captain Ryan Rogers, a helicopter pilot and the ECSO’s captain of aviation, who responded to the hangar at Buffalo Niagara International Airport. Capt. Rogers was joined there by Lieutenant Rich O’Neil, a tactical flight officer, and Lieutenant Chris Schreiber, a search-and-rescue technician.
“They were able to get up into the air a little more than an hour after the initial report came to us,” Horvatits says.
After taking off at 8:06 p.m., the helicopter crew flew over Lake Erie, where they quickly located the stranded ice fishermen at approximately 8:20 p.m. Horvatits says they were able to spot the anglers using infrared technology.
By that point, the USCG’s ice-rescue team was already making their way toward the location on foot. The team had brought along a small rescue skiff that they were able to pull over the ice.
“So we kind of converged on them there,” Horvatitis says. “The ice rescue team from the ground, and us from the air.”
As video footage from the rescue shows, the USCG team was able to launch their skiff and cross the section of open water to where the stranded fishermen were trapped. They loaded up one of the fishermen, along with all their gear, while the helicopter crew moved in to rescue the other fisherman.
Captain Rogers was able to lower the helicopter within three feet of the ice, Horvatits says, where Lt. Schreiber disembarked and helped the other angler into the chopper. From there, they flew to a marina to meet the USCG team along with first responders from the Evans Fire Department. The two fishermen were observed and later released, as there were no obvious signs of injury. Horvatits says the aviation team then flew back to the site of the rescue to ensure there were no other anglers stranded nearby. (There were none.)
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“I don’t want to say this is common, but [situations like this] certainly happen,” Horvatits says. “It’s been a frigid winter for us, but the weather is becoming much more spring-like, especially this week … And when the weather is [warmer] like this and it’s been raining, even if the ice is thick, there is always that risk factor.”