Coast Guard releases audio from yacht blast hoax

(CBS/AP) The hoaxster behind two calls alerting the Coast Guard of a motor yacht exploding off New Jersey calmly told authorities Monday that three of his fellow passengers had died, the boat was taking on water and the water level on the bridge was about three feet high.

"I'm gonna stay by the radio for as long as I can before I have to go overboard," the male voice said Monday, according to an audio recording the Coast Guard released Tuesday.

The voice that the agency said came from land triggered a rescue effort that cost tens of thousands of dollars and raised questions about how to prevent such a waste of resources.

"We have three deceased, nine injured," the voice said. "We've had an explosion on board, that's why we're taking on water."

The caller even told the Coast that life rafts carrying survivors were equipped with beacons to make themselves more visible to rescuers.

Deputy Commander Gregory Hitchen said at a news conference that the search operation on Monday evening cost at least $88,000 and lasted more than four hours. He said the emergency calls came from a radio that was being used by someone on land, not on the water.

An investigation has begun to determine who was responsible, and the agency is offering a $3,000 reward for prosecution of the person responsible.

Coast Guard offers reward in yacht explosion hoax
Coast Guard: NJ yacht explosion may be a hoax

Hitchen said the caller gave authorities a "specific blow-by-blow" on how the boat was filling up with water.

"Many hoax calls, you can tell immediately they're from children," he said. "This one was somewhat calm but was giving a convincing story as to what the nature of his emergency was."

The mission involving not only the Coast Guard, but local police and fire departments, was launched after authorities received an emergency radio transmission around 4:20 p.m. In at least two calls within about 5 minutes using the same radio transmission, the caller gave the name of the boat — the Blind Date — and reported it was 17 nautical miles east of Sandy Hook with 21 people aboard, several of them injured.

The caller also claimed the vessel sank but everyone had made it to life rafts. But Coast Guard crews and New York City police helicopters found no sign of any people or any distress in the water, and after several hours of searching it became increasingly clear there was no explosion.

"When they arrived on scene, helicopters looking down, they would have seen life rafts," Hitchen said. "And they would've seen smoke."

The caller also said the group didn't have a handheld radio or flares in the dinghy to communicate with rescuers.

At about 10 p.m., the Coast Guard made the decision to call off the search.

The two calls came in on a radio positioned somewhere in New Jersey or southern New York, possibly Staten Island, the Coast Guard said. They came in on a Coast Guard channel that is not typically used for emergencies.

Hitchen said the hoax put the public at risk by taking Coast Guard personnel away from a separate emergency call that came in during the four-hour-long search. The Coast Guard received a report of a person in the water off Bayonne, N.J., in the separate call but did not find anyone in distress.

Making a false distress call is a federal felony, with a maximum penalty of five to 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and reimbursement to the Coast Guard for the cost of performing the search. The Coast Guard and other state and local agencies responded to more than 60 suspected hoax calls last year in the northern New Jersey, New York City and Hudson River region.

Monday's distress call and search came nearly a year after a similar situation unfolded near Sandy Hook.

A call on an emergency radio channel was received in the early morning hours of June 14, 2011, with the caller claiming a 33-foot sailboat named Courtney Lynn was taking on water. Less than an hour later, another call came in claiming the boat was 90 percent submerged, and the four boaters were transferring to a small gray dinghy.

[bobnjersey]

[Deputy Commander Gregory Hitchen said at a news conference that the search operation on Monday evening cost at least $88,000 and lasted more than four hours. He said the emergency calls came from a radio that was being used by someone on land, not on the water.]
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why is the coast guard spending tens of thousands of dollars responding to an alleged emergency at sea ... that is called in from a radio on land?

[FormerUSMCSergeant]

I hope the punk is nabbed and has to serve time AND pay the $90G his stupidity cost the rest of us.

[venusvegasvada]

Only 10 years and 250k? I hope they hurry up and change the penalty to life in prison before they catch this guy.

[Martha12345]

Add this foolishness to those that intentionally put themselves at risk (mountain climbers, hang guilders, etc) and the cost to tax payers to rescue these fools ............ and you're talking real money. Not counting the rescue folks you also put at risk. Enough is enough. Time to bill these foolish risk takers and punish these hoaxers.

[joeinvegas101]

@Martha12345 - Like Egeorge said, you didn't think this too much. So tell me this, lets say that we adopt your proposition, how would we maintain a standing coast guard? If we only paid for what we need, which is what you are suggesting. If we used your logic, or lack thereof, how many people would actually pay for this, if not via taxes, and still be able to maintain the coast guard? Bet you didn't think about this huh?

[nancy_naive]

Should be part of the insurance...

[Bush-cheney-R-Terrorists]

I am guessing that it might actually be from a Coast Guard or fire rescue person. Whoever it is needs professional help, once they get out of jail.

[wlhoppers]

I hope they catch this guy and throw the book at him - charge him for all rescue operations, everything possible. Let's see how he laughs when he does jail time for his stupidity.

What a complete and utter jerk. As if we don't have enough real accidents and tragedies.

[davesilva]

$3000 reward? Not nearly enough. It needs to be a lot more. Realy, what do we have to lose? It's a simple return on investment. We put up real money, like $100K and one of his freinds will sell him out. We can charge him to the max. It's in Jersey, (near NYC) so there will be plenty of news coverage. We could have an arrest in a few days.
But if we don't offer a big reward and make an arrest we'll have a few more of these over the summer when others see how much fun it is.