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Coast Guard: Equipment Didn't Hamper Boater Search

News Channel 8 photo by PAUL LAMISON

The 21-foot center-console boat capsized Feb. 28 in the Gulf of Mexico.

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By KEITH MORELLI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 17, 2009

It wasn't only the bad weather, the 14-foot seas and the glaring spotlight of the media that frustrated the U.S. Coast Guard as it frantically searched for four high-profile boaters who went missing during a fishing trip into the Gulf of Mexico this month.

A broken down C-130 airplane and a malfunctioning radar system also made things difficult.

Still, there wasn't a dearth of search units. There were plenty of airplanes and helicopters scanning the rough Gulf waters March 1 to 3, looking for a pair of pro football players and two former University of South Florida football players lost at sea.

After two days of searching, rescuers happened upon the overturned 21-foot Everglades boat about 30 miles west of Clearwater. Clinging to the upturned boat motor's shaft was the lone survivor, Nick Schuyler, a former USF player and now a personal trainer.

The other three, Will Bleakley and NFL players Marquis Cooper and Corey Smith, were probably stricken with hypothermia and dehydration and slipped one by one into the water and were lost.

A report from the Coast Guard released this week laid out the problems early on in the massive search that covered thousands of miles of water and cost millions of dollars.

A timeline of search activity reveals that one C-130 had an inoperable radar system and another had engine problems and never left the ground. Still, there were helicopters and help from other Coast Guard stations and the U.S. Air Force from as far away as Georgia.

Search vessels criss-crossed the expanse, as a nasty weather system moved in, further hindering search efforts.

A search crew reported that, "a storm front has moved halfway into their search area, and they were only able to effectively search 40 percent of their search area," the report said. "The western 60 percent of the search area was obstructed and not effectively searched."

The crew of a C-130 at one point "was exhausted and could not fly another sortie," the report said

Briefings went from one level of command to another. There was some concern about airplanes not being sent up.

"The C-130 is still not up, and our command is very unhappy with the response time," was one line in the report. Weather was the reason for that delayed flight. The C-130 took off about 45 minutes later after the storm front had passed.

Still, the seas were high - eight to 14 feet - which would hamper the sophisticated radar equipment on the aircraft. While the radar can effectively search for boats in adverse weather or rain, it cannot search for bobbing boats in eight-foot seas, the Coast Guard said.

Further complicating the issue was the intense media coverage.

"High media interest is expected," was one line in the report.

The media spotlight, "has no affect at all on our searches," said Coast Guard Petty Officer Rob Simpson. "In every case, a person's identity or job makes no difference. A missing person is a missing person."

As for the other problems, Simpson said they didn't significantly hamper the search.

"There are malfunctions on different assets that we have," he said, "but we did have numerous assets out there. If one is unable to go out, others modify their searches to make up for that lost asset."

The father of one of the missing boaters has nothing but good things to say about the Coast Guard's efforts.

"The Coast Guard did as good a job as you could ever hope," Bob Bleakley said.

Simpson said a critique of the search is being conducted, but it's too early to say whether the protocol will be changed.

"Every time the Coast Guard mounts a search, it is critiqued," he said. "We constantly are trying to find ways to better ourselves and conduct our searches."

Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760.

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