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NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- The Coast Guard medically evacuated a Bahamian national approximately 50-miles east of New Smyrna Beach tonight.
Operational watch-standers at Coast Guard Sector Miami were notified at 11:15 a.m. Sunday by a good samaritan fishing vessel that they located a disabled 21-foot boat with four people aboard approximately 50-miles east of New Smyrna Beach, an official said.
The Coast Guard confirmed that the Bahamian Coast Guard had issued an overdue notice for the vessel Thursday after they had failed to return to the Bahamas at a pre-scheduled time.
A Coast Guard 47-foot rescue boat crew from Station Ponce de Leon Inlet, and an HH-60 Jayhawk rescue helicopter crew from Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater, responded. The helicopter rescue crew medically evacuated one person and transported the patient to Halifax Medical Center in Daytona Beach.
The Port Canaveral-based 87-foot Coast Guard Cutter Shrike will tow the disabled vessel and transport the remaining boaters to the Bahamas Air Sea Rescue Association off the coast of Freeport, Bahamas.