One of four boaters who went missing off the Florida coast Saturday has been found, according to the Coast Guard. Three others, including two NFL players, are still missing.
An overturned vessel was discovered Monday afternoon with former University of South Florida football player Nick Schuyler clinging to it, according to Coast Guard Petty Officer James Harless.
Oakland Raiders linebacker Marquis Cooper and NFL free agent Corey Smith, who played for the Detroit Lions for the past three seasons, have not returned from a fishing trip Saturday in water off Clearwater, family members and colleagues said Sunday.
A wave flipped the boat over during a storm Saturday evening and he and his friends held onto the boat's hull, Schuyler told authorities, Coast Guard Petty Officer Robert Simpson told CNN.
Video shot by CNN affiliates showed Schuyler being removed from a Coast Guard helicopter Monday afternoon. He appeared to be talking.
The search, which began early Sunday, now involves three Coast Guardcutters, three C-130 Hercules airplanes and three helicopters combing 16,000 square miles of open water in the Gulf of Mexico, about 50 miles west of Clearwater Pass, according to a Coast Guard statement. The search area Sunday was just 750 square miles.
The Air Force Reserve's 920th Rescue Wing, based at Florida's Tyndall Air Force Base, sent a C-130 airplane and a HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopter to join the effort Monday, the Air Force said.
Rough seas and high winds that hampered the search Sunday continued Monday. The Coast Guard reported winds of 15 to 20 knots and waves up to 9 feet in the search area Monday.
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Re:Missing boaters
Date: 2009/03/03 23:33
By: KatiePery
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Coast Guard's search supervisor Captain Timothy Close said that the Coast Guard performed 50 search missions and spent 230 hours on the scene, crawling 24,000 square miles of ocean. He said that today marked 60 hours since the Coast Guard received a phone call reporting a boat was overdue. It is believed the boat capized eight hours before that.
U.S. Coast Guard's search supervisor Captain Timothy Close announced that at 6:30 p.m., the Coast Guard would suspend "all active search efforts in place."
Close also urged caution to any amateur search efforts, saying that the scene is "a long ways off shore, and that boats are out of coverage. We do not want to have to initiate any other search efforts."
This will be the last scheduled briefing from the Coast Guard, and when asked how the families reacted today, he said they "were fairly upset with the whole circumstance."
Close offered no update on the medical condition of Nick Schulyer. He also said they found a life jacket and a cooler about 16 miles from the boat that they believe came from the boat.
Earlier today, Tampa General Hospital upgraded rescued boater Nick Schuyler's condition to "fair."
Crews had immeasurably better weather today, searching in 1 to 3 foot seas, with winds at around 10-15 miles an hour.
The boat was anchored Saturday afternoon, and when the four men onboard tried to raise that anchor as the weather worsened, it flipped at around 5 p.m.
The men were not wearing life vests when the boat capsized. They swam underneath the overturned boat, pulled out four life jackets, and all put them on.
Capt. Close remarked earlier today how every search is different and there is no established protocol on how long they should continue, and that any decision to call it off would be made by him and his supervisor in Miami.
The search was perfrormed with primarily Coast Guard craft, one fixed-wing C-130 jet in the air, along with an HH-60 Jayhawk helicopter. Three cutters were on the scene, the Crocodile, Nantucket, and Tornado.
The search has covered around 20,000 square miles so far, but is now focused on about 4,000 square miles. That search area has crept south, following the current in the Gulf, which is moving southward at around 1 mile per hour.
The initial interview with rescued boater Nick Schuyler revealed helpful details that have allowed the Coast Guard to refine its search.
Members of the Coast Guard and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission are planning a follow-up interview with Schuyler as his condition improves Tuesday.
The group's boat is still adrift. The Coast Guard marked it with a locator strobe, and Florida Fish and Wildlife may plan to retrieve it as part of their accident investigation, Close said.
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