A vigorous search off the Half Moon Bay coast for a 54-year-old man came to a woeful halt after the Coast Guard called off operations Sunday. The man was snatched by the sea along with a 5-year-old girl after a merciless wave crashed onto them at Martins Beach as reported by U.S. Coast Guard News.
The duo was ambushed by an unyielding wave, which led to the young girl being quickly rescued and taken to a hospital, where she was tragically pronounced dead. Efforts to save the man continued fervently as Coast Guard units and San Mateo County Fire personnel plunged into action to rapidly begin searching for him on Saturday afternoon, but to no avail according to Hoodline. The teams, which included an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter and a robust 47-foot motor lifeboat, joined an exhaustive 22-hour search that saw eight different sorties covering a daunting 100 square miles without any sign of the missing man.
As desperation climbed with every passing hour, hope started to fleetingly fade. "The decision to suspend search efforts is one of the hardest decisions to make, but our crews searched for nearly 24 hours without any sightings of the missing person," said Capt. Jordan Baldueza of the U.S. Coast Guard.
Despite the seemingly insurmountable odds, the Coast Guard Cutter Hawksbill was dispatched to bravely search throughout the night alongside aircrews and shore teams. They tirelessly canvassed the area until the heart-wrenching verdict arrived—to suspend the search at 12:38 p.m. on Sunday. The Coast Guard's arduous decision, one seared by grim reality, bore heavily on the crews, who are always prepared to go the extra nautical mile in order to save lives.
