Coast Guard rushed to a car near edge of Niagara Falls. Now rescuers tell their story
A Coast Guard crew’s helicopter’s blades were already whirring before take off for a training flight in Detroit, Michigan when they got a call about a car near the edge of Niagara Falls.
This drastically changed their plans and they switched direction, rushing to the 180-foot falls.
A car became nearly submerged in the Niagara River on the New York side with a woman in her 60’s inside on Dec. 8. She was pronounced dead after one rescuer was hoisted down 80 feet from the helicopter with a cable to pull her out from the icy rapids.
Now, the rescuers are telling their story.
“It’s not something we do on a daily basis. It’s nothing we train for,” Lieutenant Chris Monacelli, aircraft commander and helicopter pilot, told McClatchy News during a phone interview with aviation survival technician and helicopter rescue swimmer Derrian Duryea, who recovered the body.
“I don’t think anyone can sit here and say they’ve hoisted down to rushing water going off of one of the tallest waterfalls in the world.”
The Coast Guard Great Lakes crew’s helicopter flight was about an hour-long, and they didn’t know for sure whether a person was inside the car in the river until 15 minutes before they arrived, according to Monacelli.
They were at Air Station Detroit when they got the emergency call. Knowing it would take about an hour to arrive at Niagara Falls, the crew snapped into action.
“We don’t want to waste time in case it is legit,” Monacelli said. “If it ends up being nothing we can turn around.”
The helicopter started making its way across the Canadian peninsula. Halfway there, they were hit with a snowstorm, making it hard to see.
Monacelli said the storm only got worse and they were particularly concerned about not hitting any windmills due to there being windmill farms in the area.
They did “some old school navigating,” according to Monacelli, and followed a road that was visible eastbound.
When they arrived in the Niagara area, the winds were picking up with snow blowing around as flying conditions worsened, Monacelli said.
“If that was a normal training flight, we would not be flying it whatsoever,” he explained. “The first hurdle was just getting there.”
The second hurdle was once they found the car, they had to get Duryea down there.
While 15 minutes away from the scene, a New York state park drone confirmed there was one person inside, Monacelli said.
“When we got on scene and saw that the car was 20 yards away from the falls, that kind of opened our eyes a little bit more to the severity of the situation,” Duryea said, adding that the outside air temperature was about 20 degrees.
“We had to come up with a plan, you know, what is the best way to execute this rescue?”
The crew saw the car’s back left driver’s side window was open and so was the trunk, according to Duryea.
They decided to enact a “direct deployment,” Duryea explained, to put himself — the rescue swimmer — within two to three feet of the car where a person was in the driver’s seat.
His plan was to break open a window, so he grabbed his ax and prepared to be hoisted down 80 feet while wearing an orange dry suit to protect against the frigid water.
Duryea didn’t need the ax because the passenger door was unlocked, he said.
“The only thing I was thinking about was how am I gonna get this survivor?,” he said of the woman inside the car.
“So I opened the door and I was able to push it out against the current and wedge myself in between the door and the frame of the car.”
He reached the woman, who he said was unconscious, and was hoisted up out of the water to the river’s shore.
“This was definitely a very unique case and a very technical case with a lot of things that could have gone wrong, but fortunately we were able to stay safe and affect the rescue,” Duryea noted.
“It’s always hard for us when folks don’t make it but we know that we did everything we could and we’re able to bring closure home for the family.”
The rescue crew also included flight mechanic John Finnerty and helicopter co-pilot Jake Wawrzyniak.
“We commend the readiness and courage demonstrated today by our crew to effect an 80ft. hoist from a submerged vehicle 20 yards from the top of Niagara Falls in foul weather,” a Dec. 8 Twitter post from the U.S. Coast Guard Great Lakes said.
The woman recovered from the car may have driven the vehicle intentionally into the river, State Park Police said, WGRZ reported.
Her death is still under investigation and her identity hasn’t been released, according to the outlet.
This story was originally published December 9, 2021 at 6:38 PM.
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