CA airman swept out to sea, search called off

An extensive seven-hour search for a missing National Guard Airman is over and still there’s no sign of him. The U.S. Coast Guard said calling off the search is one of the most difficult decisions they have to make.

“The decision to suspend a search and rescue case is one of the most difficult decisions to make,” Capt. Greg Stump, Commander of Coast Guard Sector San Francisco, said in a statement. “I want to extend my sincere condolences to the family, friends and California Air National Guard. after conducting an extensive search for seven hours with our partner agencies, we made the challenging decision to suspend the active search,” Stump said.

The 24-year-old airman was swept by a wave off of Garrapata State Beach in Carmel and was reported missing on Tuesday around 9:30a.m. According to the Coast Guard, he was assigned to the 129th Rescue Wing at Moffett Field. A lifeboat from Monterey and a helicopter crew from air station San Francisco and several partner agencies responded to the search. But on Tuesday night, they called off the search.

As resources were called out for that search, one city on the Monterey Peninsula is looking to find ways to beef up its ability to conduct search and rescue responses. Pacific Grove city leaders say rescue efforts need to happen faster along its coastline with some rugged terrain. It’s looking to fine tune rescue responses in situations like this one, while local emergency crews say enough resources are already in place.

“It just happens so fast and we’ve just lost over the years, so many people to the rip tides and to the undertows that exist all along the coastline, that really something needs to be done about it,” said Pacific Grove council member Dan Miller.

Miller said more needs to be done when it comes to swimmer safety…
on Oct. 25th, two teen brothers were swept out to sea at Asilomar State Beach. Miller said the 16-year-old was rescued by surfers, while the 18-year-old was never found.

“In the old days with the marine rescue patrol, they had a van and they had volunteers and they’d be there you know in literally a few minutes you know be right there close to the ocean get there and have skin divers in the water in literally just minutes,” Miller said.

Monterey Fire Chief Gaudenz Panholzer said everything changed when the fire departments merged in 2008 because the volunteer program was just too expensive.

“For volunteers and paid personnel alike OSHA doesn’t care whether you get paid or not, they have the same training mandates, the same requirements, the same certifications,” Panholzer said.

However, Panholzer said Pacific Grove and Carmel are covered by Monterey’s Marine Safety Program, with automatic response from California State Parks surf lifeguards when they’re available.

“We have the capacity to respond to coastline here via the water and we can deploy that boat within about 10 min of its request and we can hit the Pacific Grove coastline pretty much at any point along that coastline within about 15 minutes,” Panholzer said.

Miller said Pacific Grove’s city manager is being called on to coordinate new talks with local agencies to create a better plan. The Monterey County Sheriff’s Department will be getting its dive team up and running again soon, after being stalled for some time.