CAPE MAY — Coast Guard crews helped rescue three people from a sinking fishing vessel early Sunday off the coast of South Jersey.
Crew members aboard the Viking II contacted Coast Guard Sector Delaware Bay at about 12:45 a.m. and reported they were taking on water about 80 miles southeast of Cape May.
A Coast Guard Air Station Atlantic City MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew lowered a dewatering pump to the Viking II, but it couldn’t keep up with the water. An HC-130 aircrew from Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, N.C., then dropped another pump, but the boat’s crew couldn’t recover it.
Another fishing vessel, the Miss Suzzane, soon arrived and took the Viking II crewmembers aboard. They were transferred to the Cape May-based 87-foot Coast Guard Cutter Ibis and taken ashore.
