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6 People Rescued After Boat Capsizes On Long Island Sound

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A beautiful evening on Long Island Sound quickly turned chaotic when a 30-foot boat with six people aboard overturned near Execution Rock.

A call went out for help. The Coast Guard, FDNY and NYPD water rescue teams quickly responded, CBS2's Hazel Sanchez reported.

"As we put our SCUBA gear on, we hear somebody actually requesting, 'I need NYPD divers. We have possibly person under the boat,'" NYPD Det. Brian Mullen said.

Mullen was one of the divers in full SCUBA gear lowered down over the capsized boat. As the other passengers were pulled out of the water they told rescuers a woman was trapped in the cabin.

NYPD water rescue
(Photo: NYPD)

Mullen and his partner swam under the boat and spotted her foot tangled behind cushions and fishing gear.

"I grab the foot and the foot moved. I'm like that's a great sign," Mullen said. "I slowly put my hand up and I felt the woman's hand and she gave me a reassuring squeeze to my hand, so I knew she wasn't panicking and she was alive."

Mullen said the woman didn't speak English, yet he still managed to coach her on how to breath through his secondary air source.

He guided her to the boat's sunroof hatch, where his partner met them and pulled the woman safely to the surface.

"I was about 4-5 feet below the surface. Det. Mullen pushed her through the window. I grabbed her legs, grabbed her and swam her to the surface. She was moving a little bit, but not panicking," Officer James Roche said.

FDNY marine rescue crews in cold-water gear pulled her onto their waiting boat. They said she was in hypothermic shock. She and the other passengers were rushed to North Shore University Hospital.

"My main thought was, 'Let's just figure this out.' And she was very calm, I was very calm, and it was a very smooth operation," Mullen said.

Officials still don't know what caused the vessel to capsize. Everyone taken to the hospital was expected to be released late Sunday night.

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