Tag: rescue

US Navy Rescues Two Women Off the Coast of Japan After Being Stranded for Months

| October 28, 2017

I am glad these two women are okay, but here is a power tip for anyone thinking of going on a very long trip on a sailboat, learn how to sail it and bring a personal locator beacon:

The Navy has rescued two women lost in the Pacific for months after their small boat’s engine failed and they were blown off course during a voyage from Hawaii to Tahiti.

The Sasebo, Japan-based amphibious ship USS Ashland rescued Jennifer Appel and Tasha Fuiava, both of Honolulu, along with their dogs Zeus and Valentine after their adrift sailboat was spotted Wednesday about 900 miles southeast of Japan.

“Thank god we’ve been rescued,” was Appel’s first thought when she saw the American sailors approaching her stricken craft in a small boat launched from the Ashland Thursday morning.

“They saved our lives,” she said, according to a Navy statement about the rescue. “The pride and smiles we had when we saw [the Navy] on the horizon was pure relief.”  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link.

Local Residents Rescue Korean Boy Sucked Into the Ocean In Hawaii

| February 22, 2017

This Korean family is lucky their child did not drown:

A family visiting Hawaii from South Korea is grateful for the good Samaritans who helped rescue their young son from waters on Oahu’s North Shore.

Cell phone video taken Sunday just after 5:30 p.m. shows 8-year-old Ryon Kim playing in the whitewash near shore at Sunset Beach. His younger brother plays nearby. Their grandfather can be seen gesturing to Ryon, though he does not appear to realize the danger the boy is in.

Ryon attempts to leave the water, but a retreating wave knocks him over and sucks him out into the ocean. His grandfather and mother struggle to reach him and that’s when several people can be seen running in to help, including Ewa Beach native Christopher Tuncap.

“The minute I saw the second wave come, that’s when I got up and I started sprinting,” said Tuncap.  [Hawaii News Now]

You can read the rest at the link plus view the cell phone video, but Oahu’s North Shore is infamous for its large waves during the winter months and is not an area for little kids to be splashing around in.

US Servicemembers Conduct Dramatic Rescue of Family From Burning Building Outside of Osan Airbase

| May 4, 2016

Via a reader tip comes this dramatic rescue story of US servicemembers saving a Nigerian family from a burning building outside of Osan AB:

The scenario, captured in mobile phone footage, is a mother’s nightmare.  On the fourth story of a burning building in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, a woman dangles her baby out the window as smoke billows from two floors below.  Onlookers scream and wave their hands as the 30-year-old mother holds out the terrified infant — the child’s legs kicking furiously — before dropping her to the crowd.  Another child follows, then another, before the woman herself leaps from the window — the only escape route.  Remarkably, all survived without injury Saturday, caught safely on blankets in a rescue effort orchestrated by passing U.S. service personnel stationed at nearby Osan Air Base.

U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Daniel Raimondo told CNN he was walking to dinner Saturday when he saw clouds of smoke and set off in that direction.  On assessing the scene, he and a colleague discussed how to help and resolved to get some blankets from a nearby store. They corralled others to help hold the blankets, then tried to persuade the mother to drop her children to safety. First Sgt. Melanie Scott said the woman was understandably reluctant to let go of her children, ages 1, 3 and 4.

“You could tell she was scared. She didn’t want to.”  Raimondo said that the “last baby was the most difficult in my eyes, she just wouldn’t let her go for some reason.”  He said he repeatedly begged the mother: “Please just throw the baby down!”  “I remember her screaming (at) the baby, ‘I love you, I love you. …’ Next thing you know she dropped the baby.”  [CNN]

 

You can read the rest at the link, but quick thinking and great job by everyone involved in this rescue effort.