Madison, Guilford, East Haven, Branford, West Haven fire departments among shoreline emergency response teams that aided in search Friday night after call came in from distressed boater in West Haven. USCG Cutter Chinook still searching. Jet en route.
As of 5:20 a.m. today, the U.S. Coast Guard was still searching for a boater who called in seeking help Friday night after his boat hit a rock and started taking on water.
A dispatcher from the U.S. Coast Guard Sector Long Island Sound stationed in New Haven said initial reports indicate that one adult male was on board, and that he reported striking a reef in Long Island Sound near Chick's Drive In in West Haven, which is off of Beach Street near Morse Park in West Haven.
The dispatcher said fire departments from Madison, Guilford, East Haven, Branford, and West Haven initially responded to the call, which came in around 10:49 p.m. Friday.
"We [the Coast Guard] are still currently searching," he said Saturday morning. "As far as we know it was one adult male. He didn't give us a whole lot of information. He said he struck a reef off of Chick's Drive In in West Haven, he was taking on water, he was shooting off flares and abandoning ship."
The dispatcher said the U.S. Coast Guard a helicopter did a search Friday night and that the USCG's 87-foot patrol boat headquartered in New London, the Coast Guard Cutter Chinook is currently searching. A Coast Guard jet from U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod (ASCC), located at the Massachusetts Military Reservation on Cape Cod, is en route to help with the search.