A Rescue Swimmer Who Tried To Save A Woman, Dropped Into Niagara falls

A RESCUE swimmer risked his life to try to save a woman from a submerged car as it drifted toward a 180-foot-high waterfall at Niagara Falls.

A US Coast Guard rescue team was getting ready for a training flight at 12.30pm on Wednesday when they got the call about a car floating yards from the brink.Lt Chris Monacelli and his crew from Selfridge Air National Guard Base near Detroit exclusively told The Sun that they were about an hour away from the scene.

They immediately started heading in that direction.

“About 30 minutes in the flight, we got some pictures of the on-scene conditions and what was going on with the car. Still didn’t have any confirmed people in the car yet, just knew that there was a car for sure in the water near the falls,” said Monacelli, who has been flying for eight years.

About 15 minutes later, the rescue squad got confirmation from state police that there was at least one person in the vehicle.NO SIGNAL’
Halfway to the scene, the conditions became extremely treacherous. A snowstorm had hit and visibility was quickly deteriorating.

“As we got closer to Niagara, the storm got worse and worse and worse,” Monacelli said. “I’d say at one point, we were down to about a half-mile visibility.”Monacelli, who was the pilot and head of the rescue team, said he had to fly the helicopter low, 200 to 300 feet above ground, because of the storm above them.

“So at that point, I think we stopped worrying about what was happening at Niagara and we just ensured that we had safe navigation to get there,” he said.With visibility so low, he had to revert to “old school” techniques of navigation to get to Niagara Falls safely, following a road that they had in sight.

“We know you can’t put windmills on a road. So we can’t hit a windmill if it’s not there.”

They were challenging conditions Monacelli said he hadn’t flown in before, and they didn’t get much better when they arrived over the car.

“Without de-icing capabilities, we were sitting literally sitting right next to that mist cloud from the falls. And as we were sitting there hoisting, we had ice building up all over the aircraft, which is not a good thing to have, because it can cause issues with the helicopter.”Monacelli’s next task was holding the helicopter in place while lowering Aviation Survival Technician Second Class Derrian Duryea to the car.

“It was challenging holding [the helicopter] in place,” Monacelli said. “Because with the water rushing as fast as it was moving, you don’t really get a good, solid reference point.

“But the thing that was really making it hard was the fact that that mist was actually glazing over the windows. And towards the end of the hoist, I couldn’t see outside the window.”

The team chose to do a direct deployment, a method used to put a rescue swimmer within two to three feet of the survivor, or in this case, the car. Duryea said the temperature outside was 20 degrees as he grabbed his ax and dropped from the helicopter.

One of the concerns was if the car would move during the deployment. The falls were 60 feet away.

“So on my way down, I ended up landing on the passenger side of the car and I went right for the door handle,” Duryea said. “Luckily, the doors were unlocked.”

Duryea gave credit to Monacelli and other team members for getting him down quickly and safely.CLOSURE’
The crew hoisted the woman from the vehicle and transferred her to first responders, who pronounced her dead.

“Unfortunately, it didn’t end the way that we wanted to,” Duryea said. “But we’re glad that we were able to bring this woman home to her family and give them closure.”

He said that’s not always the case in rescues and it’s tough on the family and team when they’re not able to bring someone home.

“So anytime that we can is a good day.”

AdvertisemeWHAT POLICE ARE SAYING
It was the first time a car had ended up that close to the falls, according to authorities.

Officers haven’t yet released the identity of the woman who died, though they said she was in her late 60s and from the Western New York State area.

Police were investigating what caused her car to end up in the river, including if weather played a factor.

Police later said they suspect the woman intentionally drove the car into the water.