THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, November 18, 1994 TAG: 9411180508
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Medium: 86 lines
Flora Ruiz clutched her 4-month-old son and looked down from her sailboat into swirling, 20-foot seas.
To save herself and her son, she had to jump.
Coast Guard rescue swimmer Mario Vittone waited in the foamy water below, motioning for her to take the plunge.
She had no choice. The chopper hovering above couldn't lift them from the boat. She jumped.
Vittone grabbed mother and child, whose tiny life jacket was tethered to hers. He held the infant as high out of the water as arms could stretch while the woman scrambled into a metal basket. She reached for her son and pulled little Ira Hubbard to safety.
The woman's 13-year-old daughter, Laura Luehzia, and husband, Ira Hubbard, soon took the same treacherous route to safety: plunging into the sea, climbing into a basket and riding up into the chopper. The helicopter carried them to the aircraft carrier America, dazed but delighted to be on firm footing again.
``The baby just looked at me in the water,'' Vittone said. ``He was just big-eyed. He cried once or twice in the plane and then fell asleep.''
A Coast Guard crew from Elizabeth City plucked the family from the Atlantic 360 miles east of Norfold Thursday afternoon in a daring and delicate rescue.
The family, from Colombia, was en route to Bermuda on the 64-foot Marie Flower II when the boat ran into 50-knot winds and high seas spawned by Hurricane Gordon.
``We were not aware that it was going be a severe storm,'' said Hubbard, 49, a U.S. citizen who has lived in Colombia since 1971, on a Coast Guard ambulance at the Elizabeth City Air Station.
``We heard there was a front coming and that from then on it would be easy sailing. I was told it would be favorable, but it didn't turn out that way.''
Ruiz, 39, and her daughter do not speak English. Wrapped in blankets and wearing smiles, they said in Spanish that they were doing well.
The family left the Norfolk area Monday and was headed to Bermuda when tough seas began tossing the sailboat. Hubbard alerted Coast Guard officials about the conditions Wednesday night.
The weather worsened overnight, and Thursday morning Hubbard relayed a radio request through the nearby merchant vessel Northern Progress to have his wife and the two children airlifted from the boat.
A C-130 airplane crew spotted the boat about 10:30 a.m., and efforts began to find a way to reach the distressed vessel, which was about 60 miles out of the helicopter's normal 300-mile range.
That's when officials decided to use the America as a refueling station both before and after saving the family. The America had been conducting routine carrier qualifications about 100 miles east of Norfolk but had stopped because of the weather. Gordon's northbound path stretched between the carrier and the ailing vessel.
When rescuers reached the Marie Flower II about 4 p.m., Hubbard also was ready to abandon the sailboat, which officials said was in working condition.
Family members were forced to jump into the water because the rescuers were unable to hoist people directly from a sailboat. Vittone said he had never rescued a baby in that manner before.
``That was the kicker,'' Vittone said after he, pilot Dave Gunderson, co-pilot Dan Molthen and flight mechanic Bobby Blackwell returned to Elizabeth City just after 7 p.m. ``That's not a normal part of our training.'' MEMO: Perry Parks and Kerry DeRochi contributed to this report.
ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
LAWRENCE JACKSON/Staff
Seaman Lori Cherry holds Ira Hubbard Ruiz, 4 months, after he and
his family were rescued from their boat Thursday.
KEYWORDS: RESCUES AT SEA U.S. COAST GUARD by CNB