SEA GIRT, N.J. (NEWS 12 NEW JERSEY) — A dramatic water rescue was caught on camera when a boat crew went out on the water to catch fish in New Jersey and ended up saving four men from a rapidly sinking boat.
The video shows a group of people on board pulling the first man, who was out of breath and seconds away from going under, onto the vessel.
"Maybe a couple hundred feet away, I see guys screaming on the back of their boat and waving their arms. I see the back transom of their boat just going down into the water and they're screaming," said Joey Cabasso, one of the rescuers.
Cabasso and the others had just reached Sea Girt Reef, three miles offshore, when their plans to fish shifted into a life-or-death rescue operation.
"I screamed... 'The boat is going down!' We jumped into action [and] grabbed our life vests. They didn't have any light vests, they were already in the water. It was, like, a minute later that boat just went down so quick," said Cabasso.
In under three minutes, all four of the people on the sinking boat were pulled to safety, and a state police unit brought them to shore
"I asked them, 'Did you make a distress call?'" said Cabasso. "He said, 'No we didn't have time.' It really... I've never seen something happen so quick."
Cabasso says he never got the names of the four people they rescued that day.
