FDNY: 19 Rescued After Dragon Boat Overturns In College Point, Queens
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - Nineteen people were rescued after their dragon boat overturned in College Point, Queens Sunday afternoon.
The incident took place at around 2 p.m. near 110th Street and 14th Avenue.
There were no serious injuries, the FDNY said.
The rescue effort came fast as the Coast Guard, FDNY, police, and other boaters rushed to save them.
"The water and the temperature is a little cooler than usual, so you get hypothermia much faster," Sam Chan said.
The boaters were unnerved, but accounted for. No one was injured, but the boat sank to the bottom.
FDNY Lt. Robert Greer was on a rescue boat in the area.
"We started plucking them out of the water one by one, by the time we had everybody on it was nineteen persons which is an awful lot of people," Lt. Greer said.
As 1010 WINS' Gary Baumgarten reported, one of the racers on the boat had proposed to his girlfriend before the boat capsized.
FDNY: 19 Rescued After Dragon Boat Overturns In College Point, Queens
Franklin Chiu had just asked his girlfriend Vicky Lee to marry him as the team paddled towards the Whitestone Bridge.
"The proposal went well, without a hitch, it was just making it back to the dock," Chiu told CBS2's Steve Langford.
Chiu was still a bit rattled after the proposal made a bigger splash than he'd planned for. Putting the ring back in his zipper pouch while paddling back after asking for Lee's hand in marriage turned out to be a great move.
"It's a good think I listened to him and didn't put the ring in the dry bag because that would be at the bottom of the water right now, ha!" Lee said.
Lee was a happy and reflective fiancee.
"It's very unique. We're lucky we've ridden some good times and bad times just like the currents so surviving this, we'll survive everything else," she said.
The rescued passengers were taken to the College Point Yacht Club.
