Two rescued from sea off Wairarapa Coast

At 11 am this morning a Life Flight team rescued two men from the sea off of Ocean Beach on the South Wairarapa Coast.

Life Flight responded with a Wellington Free Ambulance Paramedic onboard the Westpac Rescue Helicopter.

Police notified us that two men had been in a boat which capsized and were now being swept out to sea. The men were reported to have a marine radio with them.

As the helicopter approached the search area the men in the water called the helicopter on their portable marine radio and were able to talk the helicopter into their location.

Both men were wearing wetsuits and were clinging to some floating bits from their boat.

Our rescue swimmer was lowered into the sea and then accompanied each man they were winched into the helicopter, one at a time.

The helicopter landed on nearby Ocean Beach where our paramedic assessed them.

“Good safety equipment including a portable radio and wetsuits certainly helped these guys” says Life Flight Crewman Julian Burn. “The nearest boat was still quite a way out so these guys were pretty lucky we got there as quickly as we did”.

Other than being slightly hypothermic both Upper Hutt men were OK and did not require hospitalisation. They were left in the care of police and relatives on the beach.

Just before 1pm Life Flight was dispatched to the Kapiti Island area where three divers were reported overdue. Our Westpac Rescue Helicopter, a Coastguard fixed wing plane, several Coastguard boats, Surf Live Saving IRBs and several private boats searched a wide area near the Southern End of Kapiti Island. The men were located by some of the search vessels and did not require any medical attention so the helicopter was stood down and returned to base.

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