Nine people rescued after jumping from sinking boat off Florida, Coast Guard says
Nine people were rescued after abandoning a sinking boat off the coast of Florida, officials said.
Watchstanders in Mobile, Alabama, received a mayday call from the 50-foot sport fishing boat just before 10:50 a.m. on Saturday, July 9, according to a news release from the U.S. Coast Guard.
The boat had reportedly run aground and started taking on water about 2 miles south of Pensacola Pass.
The nine people onboard jumped into the water as the boat “became submerged,” the Coast Guard said.
A Coast Guard boat crew from Pensacola was patrolling the area, and watchstanders directed it to the boaters, according to the news release. The crew got to the boaters just before 11 a.m. and pulled them from the water.
They were taken back to Big Lagoon State Park in Pensacola and had no reported injuries, the Coast Guard said.
No other information about the rescue had been released as of Sunday, July 10.
Pensacola is about 200 miles west of Tallahassee.
