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Jet skiers plucked from Hudson River

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

(New York - WABC, July 17, 2007) (WABC) -- Rescue teams plucked two people from the Hudson River off Washington Heights Tuesday night after they fell off a jet ski and were stranded in the water, police say.

Eyewitness News reporter Jeff Pegues has the story.

A 25-year-old woman is lucky she made it out of the Hudson alive. A day of summer fun turned into a real nightmare after she fell off a jet ski south of the George Washington Bridge. On your typical summer day, the NYPD's Air and Sea Rescue Unit responds to about two or three calls -- but it is not every day that it's caught on camera.

In video, 25-year-old Yuzelka Feliz was rescued and taken to dry land. She'd just been plucked from the rough current after she and a 22-year-old man somehow fell off a yellow jet ski.

Pilot Glenn Hoffman describes what he saw when his chopper arrived on the scene at about 5:30 p.m.

"She was pressed up against the pilings ... the current was moving very rapid downstream southbound along the Hudson River," Hoffman said.

She was in the water holding on for dear life. Police say after she fell off the jet ski, she floated the equivalent of about nine blocks down the river, caught up in the current, until she grabbed on to the pilings in the river. That's where she was spotted by the NYPD rescue helicopters.

On board the helicopter was a pilot and two scuba divers. Erick Tobkes and Greg Pryer jumped into the river to save her.

"The key thing for us entering the water is that the pilots deployed us up current ... the current was moving so rapidly today ... once we got to the victim, we got positive control of her," Pryer said.

With the strong current pulling on them, dropping the rescue basket became an issue.

"We had determined beforehand that we were going to attempt a basket rescue. So we knew that they would bring that basket in as tight as they could. So we literally had to maintain control of the victim and ourselves on the piling and wait for that basket to come ... which the crew did a great job doing," Pryer said.

And getting it right, they say, was like threading a needle. But whatever they did worked, allowing the divers to get her into the basket and eventually to land.

"Anytime that you are capable of saving a life it's a great satisfaction to know that somebody else is going home," Tobkes said.

The 25-year-old victim was first transported to St. Luke's Hospital to be treated for minor injuries. The 22-year-old man was also rescued and said to be okay.

NYPD officials say what really made a difference for the woman was that she had a life jacket on. They say that without it, she might have gone under because the current Tuesday was just that strong.

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