TAMPA, Fla. — What started off as a nice day on the water quickly turned into a nightmare when a pontoon boat flipped, sending its eight passengers into the Bay, MacDill Air Force Base reports.
It happened at around 11 a.m. on June 12.
Staff Sgt. William Au, the 6 SFS Marine Patrol crew lead, was with his partner, Airman 1st Class Kade Jones, when they noticed strong waves across the area — some reaching 5 feet high.
It led to a U.S. Coast Guard "small craft advisory" warning boaters of the increased dangers they could encounter like powerful winds and waves.
"Under this advisory, the MacDill marine patrol unit wouldn’t normally do their routine sweep, both for their own safety and for the lack of boats in the water," MacDill Air Force Base wrote in a news release.
However, Au and Jones decided to do a sweep anyway.
That's when they found the pontoon boat alone in the water, flipped upside down. The two called for backup as they pulled the eight boaters out of the water.
Jones also noticed a bull shark swimming near the boat, circling the rescued boaters. It was believed to be between 10 and 12 feet long, authorities said.
Other responding airmen said the waves were "really rough out there."
"The waves were so tall it was hard to see where they were," Airmen 1st Class Samari Rivera-Rodriguez said. "The waves just kept coming up and down."
The eight boaters were split between two marine patrol unit rescue boats and transported to land where they were met by the U.S. Coast Guard and the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office.
“It was a lucky, lucky day that Staff Sgt. Au and Airman 1st Class Jones went out there that morning," Ramirez-Rodriguez said.
