Pair of jet skiers found safe after three-hour search
Published 10:31 am Monday, June 19, 2017
Suffolk Fire & Rescue spent more than three hours late Sunday evening searching for a pair of missing jet skiers who were later found safe.
The two men, ages 35 and 50, departed from the 2800 block of North Shore Drive about 6:30 p.m. for a trip to the Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel, according to a city press release. Family members called emergency personnel when they hadn’t returned home by 11:19 p.m.
The family also contacted the U.S. Coast Guard, which launched a helicopter and boat to search for the missing men. Fire & Rescue launched Boat 5 to search for the men, and crews found two jet skis tied up to the site of the former Bennett’s Creek Restaurant in the 3300 block of Ferry Road.
The two men called their family at about 2:30 a.m., according to the press release. The jet skis had suffered mechanical failures, and the men had swum from the channel, pulling their disabled jet skis, for hours. Both were wearing life jackets.
Once they reached the Bennett’s Creek Restaurant site, they walked to the Farm Fresh on Bridge Road and borrowed a cellphone from another citizen to call home.
The men are residents of Suffolk and Chesapeake.
The crew from Boat 5 towed the disabled jet skis from the Bennett’s Creek Restaurant site to Bennett’s Creek Park for the men. They both received emergency medical assessment but did not require medical transport.