Sailors from the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group, which is operating in and around the Gulf of Oman, rescued the Iranian civilians from the water. The release does not say what caused the Iranians to be in distress or where exactly they were rescued.
A rigid inflatable boat from a US destroyer and a rescue helicopter from the aircraft carrier picked up the mariners on August 23 and brought them to the carrier for medical care, Central Command said. They were also provided food and water.
“Aiding distressed mariners is a mission that our strike group will always stand ready to support. It is the right thing to do, and further demonstrates that the U.S. Navy is a force ready when called upon,” said Rear Adm. Christopher Alexander, the commander of the strike group.
The rescue is notable because the carrier strike group is in the region specifically to deter Iran and its regional proxies from striking Israel or carrying out attacks on US forces in Iraq and Syria. Earlier this month, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered two carrier strike groups to remain in the Middle East because of the elevated concern over a potential Iranian attack against Israel. Those fears have remained high since Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran in July, with the Iranian government and Hamas blaming Israel for the attack.Israel has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement.
Authorities were first alerted to the crew’s crisis around 1pm on Monday, when they deployed a distress beacon, but it was hours before the first rescue helicopters located the vessel.
The 20-meter yacht, the Spirit of Mateship, had lost power and communications and was being hit by winds of up to 90 kilometers an hour (56 mph) as well as waves up to six meters high.
“(The helicopter’s crew) were able to fly above the yacht, and they could communicate via radio to the yacht, but they were unable to pick them up,” said Ben Flight, duty manager at the Australian Maritime Safety Authority Response Center.
Another rescue attempt was later abandoned due to rough seas, forcing the two people – a man, 60, and woman, 48 – to spend what Flight described as a “horrible” night at sea.
“They weren’t injured, but the vessel had suffered a mechanical issue of some kind, and they couldn’t steer, and they couldn’t make their own way through the water, so they were drifting, and they were taking on water as well. So, they were in quite a serious situation,” said Flight.
“They were sort of just at the mercy of the elements. They would have been moving around quite uncomfortably. It would have been particularly windy, noisy, probably quite wet as well.”Two Australian Navy ships – HMAS Arunta and HMAS Canberra – answered calls for help, as well as Royal Australian Air Force C-130J Hercules aircraft, according to the Australian Defence Force (ADF).
The ships, along with a nearby merchant vessel, monitored the yacht’s location overnight, and the rescue resumed in the early hours of the morning, when conditions had eased.
NSW Police vessel Nemesis arrived at the yacht about 3 a.m. Tuesday and deployed a smaller boat to rescue the sailors around 7:30 a.m. in choppy seas with swells of four meters to five meters.
“I don’t imagine they would have got any rest overnight, so I imagine they’d be quite tired and very relieved to be rescued,” Flight said.
Flight said the outcome would have been much worse if the crew hadn’t deployed the distress beacon, which issues a satellite alert to advise the rescue coordination center of their location.
The Spirit of Mateship has competed in the prestigious Sydney to Hobart yacht race several times, crewed by wounded veterans and army personnel.
Together they raised money to support army veterans. However, the yacht has changed hands since then, according to Flight.
The rescued sailors are expected to arrive back in Sydney Tuesday night after a 12-hour voyage.
As Hurricane Gilma raged in the Pacific, the Coast Guard in Hawaii received a distress call from a sailboat left stranded by the storm.
The boat was 925 miles east of Honolulu, and the rescue mission took several days, with the help of the Coast Guard and the US Navy.
When rescuers arrived, they found a woman, her daughter, their pets and a dead man authorities said was the vessel’s master.
Officials at the Joint Rescue Coordination Center Honolulu received a distress alert from the sailboat around 12:33 p.m. local time on Saturday, according to a news release from the Coast Guard.
An airplane crew was able to locate the French-flagged vessel Albroc and heard a mayday call from the woman on board. The mother and daughter are both French, according to a Coast Guard spokesperson.
The woman, 47, said she and her daughter, 7, a cat and a tortoise needed to be rescued after the weather caused them to become stranded.
While the crew onboard the plane couldn’t make direct contact with the woman, they did see her launch two flares. At the time, the waves were up to 6 feet and winds were at 20 mph, the Coast Guard reported.
Additional crews from the Navy were requested by the Coast Guard to assist with the rescue mission.
On Sunday around 9 a.m., the woman and daughter were seen waving their arms onboard the boat by an airplane crew launched nearby. “The aircrew unsuccessfully attempted to communicate with the two boaters by hailing them on the radio and dropping message blocks,” the Coast Guard said.
Later in the evening, around 5:20 p.m., a tanker crew arrived near the boat but were unable to rescue the woman and daughter due to the weather conditions from Hurricane Gilma.
A small boat crew assigned to the USS William P. Lawrence conducted the rescue mission for the woman, child and pets onboard the French-flagged sailing vessel Albroc.
A small boat crew assigned to the USS William P. Lawrence conducted the rescue mission for the woman, child and pets onboard the French-flagged sailing vessel Albroc. Chief Warrant Officer 2 Lance Watson/US Navy
Finally, around 5 a.m. Monday, the USS William P. Lawrence, a guided-missile destroyer, arrived at the scene and the rescue mission began. Due to the condition of the sailboat and the weather, crews only had a six-hour window to safely rescue the woman and child.
A small boat crew was able to launch from the Navy ship and make contact with the sailboat, leading to the rescue.
The Navy ship arrived at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Honolulu on Wednesday evening, where the mother and daughter received care.
The mother and her 7-year-old daughter were taken to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Honolulu, Hawaii, after being rescued off the sailboat.
The mother and her 7-year-old daughter were taken to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Honolulu, Hawaii, after being rescued off the sailboat. Guillaume Maman/US Coast Guard
The body of the man who died was unable to be recovered due to weather conditions and the sailboat remains off the coast nearly 1,000 miles east of Honolulu, the Coast Guard said.
The man’s cause of death and the reasons behind why they were out on the boat in the path of the hurricane is still under investigation, a spokesperson with the Coast Guard told CNN Friday afternoon.
At the time of the rescue operations by the USS Lawrence, Hurricane Gilma was located approximately 480 miles east of the vessels and had a maximum sustained wind of 110 mph near the center of the storm, CNN meteorologist Chad Myers reported.
After the recovery, Gilma continued to move westward toward the last known position of the sailboat and came within 100 miles of the vessel with sustained winds of 60 mph.
“Through tireless planning, coordination and teamwork, our watchstanders pieced together the key elements needed for such a dynamic search and rescue case,” search and rescue mission coordinator Kevin Cooper said, “We are grateful the Seri Emperor and William P. Lawrence were able to reach the mother and daughter, who were caught right in the path of Hurricane Gilma.”
