Police Rescue Kayaker In Sinking Vessel Off Coney Island
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- NYPD officers rescued a kayaker whose vessel was sinking off Coney Island.
Two miles off Coney Island around 9:30 Saturday morning, kayaker Danny Ng was in trouble, CBS2's Steve Langford reported.
An NYPD Air and Sea rescue team responded to the distress call in about 4 minutes, finding the man and his kayak partly submerged in 50 degree waters with waves swelling four to six feet.
"He definitely had a look of a little bit of panic and he was absolutely exhausted," NYPD Det. Dylan Johnson said.
NYPD divers were about to hoist the man up into their helicopter, when a Harbor Unit vessel arrived to take him and his kayak back to land. After being examined by paramedics, the rescued man was released.
Ng had gone fishing around 8 a.m. and had caught a big one, which he suggested helped pull him far from shore.
"He said that he actually hooked a pretty nice size fish and it actually pulled him quite a bit," Johnson said.
Ng is back home after his ordeal at sea, he and his kayak in one piece, and grateful to the NYPD.
"They were great," he told CBS2.
Police are not sure how the man ended up in such distress, but they say his life vest proved vital.
"He was prepared, but he wasn't prepared to sink," an official said.
In the end, the big fish he lured in, that helped lead him astray got away, unlike the rescue tale he'll always have to tell.