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Fisherman sues after dramatic boat crash caught on video.

A fisherman who jumped ship into bone-chilling water to dodge a speeding motorboat has filed a $372,500 lawsuit, alleging the other driver was distracted by his cellphone just before the dramatic crash caught on video.

Bryan Maess filed the suit earlier this month against Marlin Lee Larsen, 75, over the Aug. 12 crash near the mouth of the Columbia River and the Pacific Ocean, the Oregonian reports .

A GoPro camera mounted to Maess’ 20-foot fishing boat captured the chaos in the seconds before Larsen’s 31-foot motorboat crashes into the smaller, stationary vessel. A passenger on Maess’ boat frantically waves his arms and repeatedly screams “Hey!” in a desperate attempt to get the driver’s attention.

“Oh my God,” another passenger screams just before the trio leap into the chilly water.

The video — which was later posted to Facebook — shows the moment the speeding motorboat plows into Maess’ fishing vessel.

Deputies in Clatsop County and the US Coast Guard responded to the crash in the Columbia River near Tansy Point and found significant damage to the fishing boat. Maess and his two passengers, Christopher McMahon and Roni Durham, managed to jump from the fishing boat just before the crash and were later treated for non-life-threatening injuries, according to the Clatsop County Sheriff’s Office .

Drugs and alcohol did not appear to be a factor in the crash, deputies said. Larsen was cited for reckless operation, three counts of reckless endangerment and three counts of fourth-degree assault.

Larsen told investigators he couldn’t see where he was driving since he was sitting down. Larsen, who uses a motorized scooter on land, admitted that he probably should’ve been standing at the time, according to a sheriff’s report obtained by the Oregonian.

Larsen’s son-in-law, who was also on the boat at the time, told investigators that he occasionally saw Larsen using his cellphone while driving the boat. State law bans cellphone use while driving, but there are no specific laws governing cellphone use while boating.

Larsen has denied using his cellphone while driving the motorboat, claiming that allegations to the contrary were “fake news,” according to the Oregonian. He has pleaded not guilty as his criminal case unfolds.

Investigators said Maess and his passengers likely dodged serious injury or death by leaping into the water. More than five months after the crash, Maess, who is a police officer, continues to suffer vision problems, headaches and injuries to his ankle, leg and arm, according to the suit.

McMahon and Durham have yet to file lawsuits against Larsen, although they’ve hired attorneys to do so. Attorney Josh Lamborn said Durham suffered psychological trauma during the crash and hasn’t been able to return to the water since August.

New Picture from Terrifying Boat Crash in Oregon

Around the world, more than seven million people (including readers of Cruising Odyssey ) watched the terrifying video showing a larger powerboat bearing down on three fishermen in a small boat near the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon on Aug. 12, 2017. In the video, the owner of the fishing boat, Chris McMahon, waves his arms and yells, “Hey, Hey, HEY,” as the larger boat, a 31-foot Bayliner Trophy, gets closer and closer.

The video (below) shows one angler, Roni Durham, jump into the water. McMahon also dove in just before the Bayliner climbed up the transom of his boat, a 20-foot Weldcraft. The video shows the third person, Bryan Maess, jumping off just as the Bayliner hit.

What’s new is the picture above, a screen shot, captured by GoPro cameras on the fishing boat, and it’s pretty frightening.

The three anglers were lucky. A Good Samaritan boat nearby saw the accident; it was too small for all three to climb on board, so they hung on to the gunwale while it carried them over to the Bayliner, which by then had freed itself from the back of McMahon’s boat.

Durham and Maess climbed on the Bayliner. McMahon was still upset and didn’t want to board the boat that almost killed him, so the Good Samaritan took him over to another boat.

Marlin Lee Larsen, the driver of the Bayliner, said he was sitting down and didn’t see McMahon’s boat. He had installed some new electronics, he said, and they blocked his view.

Authorities cited Larsen on three counts of assault and reckless endangerment, and one count of reckless operation of a vessel. Larsen was 75 at the time, and used a motorized scooter on land. He pleaded not guilty but passed away before the criminal case made it to court. McMahon and Maess later sued Larsen’s estate for civil damages.

One thing has changed in the intervening four years. At the time of the accident, McMahon was not wearing a life jacket. He now puts one on every time he goes fishing. See the video here:

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‘No simple accident’: Family blames boat driver for death of woman being pulled in inner tube

PORTLAND, Ore. (KPTV/Gray News) - The family of a 24-year-old Oregon woman is blaming a boat driver for her death, saying she was thrown into the side of another boat while being pulled in an inner tube.

Aliyah Seidel lost her 24-year-old sister Kaileigh Seidel on Saturday in an incident on the Willamette River. The young woman had gone out with a friend and a few people she didn’t know as well, KPTV reports .

“She was very spontaneous and loved to have fun. She got invited out on a boat, and she had no idea that that would be the last day of her life,” Aliyah Seidel said.

Kaileigh Seidel’s aunt, Rachelle Hunsperger, says water was familiar territory for her niece, who had experience whitewater rafting. But on this trip, she was riding in an inner tube being pulled by a boat. Her family says when things got dangerous, she had no control.

“There was some very erratic and unsafe driving on the boat,” Hunsperger said.

Kaileigh Seidel’s friend told Hunsperger that the driver of the boat was whipping back and forth through the river and made one turn too fast. The 24-year-old was thrown into the side of another boat and died of her injuries in the hospital that night.

Hunsperger says the incident happened as Kaileigh Seidel was pleading for the driver to stop.

“That just seems so unlike her. She was always like, ‘Let’s go. Let’s have fun.’ If she was telling somebody to slow down, then she was probably scared,” Hunsperger said. “This was no simple accident. I feel that there is somebody definitely at fault, and hopefully, that comes out.”

Aliyah Seidel describes her sister as a great friend and dog mom who made everyone around her feel loved. She says she used to tease Kaileigh Seidel for being loud.

“She was so innocent and taken so violently because of someone else’s decision to be reckless,” Aliyah Seidel said. “We definitely feel her not being there. It’s a hole in all of our hearts because it’s so much more quiet.”

As they mourn, Kaileigh Seidel’s relatives are finding comfort in reading the memories of her that people are sharing on a GoFundMe set up to help with funeral expenses.

“It’s just a great reminder to love the people that are in your life and just let them know how much you love them,” Aliyah Seidel said.

“She made impacts all over the place, and it warms my heart. I have a serious hole in my heart, but this feels like it helps,” Hunsperger said. “You never know when someone’s going to make a careless decision or a mistake, and they can be taken away from you forever. Hold them close.”

The Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the incident, and so far, no arrests have been made. They say they are still talking to witnesses, and “once the facts are clear,” they will determine if any criminal charges will be filed.

Copyright 2024 KPTV via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Watch: Terrifying moment speedboat crashes into small fishing boat and sending fishermen overboard

This is is the terrifying moment a group of fishermen desperately jumped overboard when a speedboat came hurtling towards their boat.

Shocking footage caught on a GoPro camera shows Bryan Maess, Christopher McMahon and Roni Durham casually fishing when the speedboat comes rushing towards them.

The trio wave their hands to try and get the boat to stop or swerve out of the way, with one passenger screaming “Oh my God”.

Realising a crash was inevitable, they all end up jumping into the icy waters of the Columbia River in Oregon.

Seconds later, the speedboat crashes into the 20-foot fishing boat, causing it serious damage.

Maess, 47, an off-duty police officer in Hermiston and part-time salmon fisherman, says he suffered injuries to his ankle, leg and arm during the incident, while McMahon, 46, and Durham, 57, also suffered injuries.

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Marlin Lee Larsen, 75, who was driving the speedboat, uses a motorised scooter on land and told investigators he crashed because he was unable to see the other boat from his sitting position.

However, one of Maess’ passengers claims he saw Larsen using his mobile phone while driving the speedboat – something he denies.

Maess is now suing Larsen for £268,000, claiming he has been left with vision problems and a knee brace six months after the accident.

Larsen has been charged with reckless operation, three counts of reckless endangerment and three counts of fourth-degree assault.

He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

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The Rest of the Story

• By Jeff Moag
• Updated: June 22, 2021

If you’ve been on the Internet in the last four years, you’ve probably seen the video. It starts with three salmon fishermen waving and shouting as a 31-foot powerboat bears down on their small skiff near the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon.

“Hey!” yells the skiff’s owner, Chris McMahon. “Hey! HEY!”

But the oncoming boat doesn’t turn or slow. It keeps coming until its bow fills the frame, and the anglers leap into frigid water just as the larger boat runs up and over their 20-foot aluminum Weldcraft.

A GoPro camera mounted on McMahon’s boat caught it all. If you freeze the video at just the right moment, you can see Bryan Maess is still aboard the skiff as the 31-foot Bayliner Trophy climbs its transom. At that instant the third angler, Roni Durham, is half in the water and half out, her feet pointed to the sky. McMahon remembers diving headfirst into the water and staying under as long as he could to keep clear of the Bayliner’s twin propellers. It turns out he needn’t have worried—the props came clear out of the water, with one of them carving a serrated line along the Weldcraft’s aluminum gunwale.

The video clip racked up more than 7 million views online. There were news articles and lawsuits, but the story of what happened after the impact has never been told publicly—and it’s just as harrowing as the accident itself.

We’ll get to that in a minute. But first, you may be wondering how one boat can slam into another on a clear calm day. The short answer is operator inattention. The operator of the Bayliner, Marlin Larsen, was sitting down at the helm and may have been looking at his cell phone. He told Clatsop County deputies that he never saw McMahon and his companions in their 20-foot boat.

“According to his son-in-law and grandson who were on the boat, he kept playing on his phone and apparently they told him multiple times to stay off the phone,” McMahon says. “That’s what they told the sheriff’s department and Coast Guard. Larsen himself told me he had mounted some new electronics on the dash and that created a blind spot. So when he was running he just sat down and couldn’t see.”

The result was the collision captured on McMahon’s GoPro, and three people in the water. Only Durham was wearing a life jacket, and it failed to inflate.

“The collision happened so fast we didn’t have a chance to get scared. It’s like you walk out in the middle of the road with a semi truck coming and you jump out of the way,” McMahon said of the August 2017 incident. “The scary part comes when you have time to actually think about what’s happening to you.”

The sheer randomness of the accident is the best argument for the one thing McMahon didn’t do that day—wear his life jacket.

The accident took place near Buoy 10 at the mouth of the Columbia River, an area known for shifting shoals, ferocious currents and world class salmon fishing. On that day, an outgoing tide boosted the Columbia’s already powerful current, sweeping the anglers toward a forest of old pilings. The experience was every bit as scary as being run down by a large powerboat, McMahon says, especially since he knew what was coming.

“I’ve been out there when the current was ripping so hard that those pylons, which are like telephone poles, actually sway back and forth with the current,” he says. “We were getting pulled pretty quick so I was concerned that if we got into the pylons that might be the end of us.”

The anglers struggled to stay afloat in jeans and waterlogged sweatshirts as the current pulled them toward the pilings and the ocean beyond.

Fortunately, McMahon and his friends weren’t the only boaters on the water that day, and good Samaritans quickly swung into action. First on the scene was a man with his young daughter in a small boat with a tiller-style outboard. He maneuvered the little boat expertly to collect the three anglers just before they reached the pilings, but the skiff was too small to take the trio aboard. They held onto the gunwales as the driver motored slowly to the Bayliner, which by that time had slid off the mangled remains of McMahon’s Weldcraft.

Maess and Durham went aboard the Bayliner, but McMahon wasn’t quite ready to meet the man whose inattention had nearly killed him. “Quite honestly I was in shock and I didn’t know how I would react, so I asked him to take me to another boat that was hovering nearby,” he says.

Later, as the survivors spoke at the boat ramp with investigators from the Clatsop County Sheriff’s Department and U.S. Coast Guard, Larsen approached McMahon. “He came over and said ‘Hey, I’m sorry,’ and tried to introduce himself,” McMahon recalls. “I told him there may be a place and a time that I forgive you, but right now is not it and I just need some space.”

Larsen, who was 75 at the time, told deputies he couldn’t see where he was going because he was sitting down and the dash of his boat was blocking his view. He admitted he probably should have been standing, according to the sheriff’s report, which notes that he used a motorized scooter to get around. Authorities cited him with three counts each of assault and reckless endangerment, and one count of reckless operation of a vessel. He pleaded not guilty, but died of natural causes before the criminal case made it to court. Maess and McMahon later sued Larsen’s estate for civil damages.

Looking back on that day, McMahon says there’s nothing he could have done to avoid the accident. Evasive action was out of the question—he was fishing from the stern, far from his boat’s controls, and the Bayliner was on them in an instant. No one could have predicted the collision, which happened in fair weather with good visibility. The sheer randomness of the accident is the best argument for the one thing he didn’t do that day—wear his life jacket.

Before the accident, McMahon would typically only use a life jacket in rough conditions. The close call at Buoy 10 changed his outlook. “I have never been on the water since without a life jacket,” he says.

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Yaquina Bay tragedy: 'Our hearts and thoughts are with the family and friends of the crew'

NEWPORT, Ore. - Police have identified the crew of a fishing vessel killed when their boat capsized while crossing the Yaquina Bay bar Tuesday night.

At 10 p.m., the U.S. Coast Guard learned of "a boat needing assistance crossing the Yaquina Bay bar due to high seas," Oregon State Police said.

"Coast Guard was on scene quickly, even as it happened, as vessel's crew had asked for escort across the bar, so we were there very quickly," Petty Officer Levi Read told KOMONews Radio. "Unfortunately we were not able to recover them."

At 10:13 p.m., state police learned that F/V Mary B II had capsized with three people on board.

A Coast Guard helicopter located James Lacey, 48, of South Toms River, New Jersey, in the water and took him to Pacific Communities Hospital in Newport, where he was pronounced dead, police said.

At 12:28 a.m., the Newport Fire Department found Joshua Porter, 50, of Toledo, Oregon, on the sand near Nye Beach . He died at the scene, police said.

The Mary B II later ran aground on the beach near the Yaquina Bay North Jetty, police said.

The vessel's skipper, 50-year-old Stephen Biernacki of Barnegat Township, New Jersey, was found dead in the boat.

Petty Officer Read said the vessel capsized in normal sea and weather conditions for this time of year. He said the Yaquina Bay bar is a dangerous bar, as are all of the river bars in the Pacific Northwest.

"We did everything we could," Read said. "Unfortunately, it was just a tragic outcome, and our hearts and thoughts are with the family and friends of the crew."

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Fisherman sues after dramatic boat crash on Columbia River

CLATSOP COUNTY, Ore. — A fisherman who had to jump into the Columbia River to avoid being crushed in a boating crash has filed a lawsuit against the person who was captaining the other vessel.

Clatsop County Sheriff's Department said that the motor boat driver, Marlin Lee Larsen, 75, was sitting down while driving his boat and that he couldn't see over the dash when he crashed into the fishing boat that Bryan Maess, 47, and two other friends were on, Oregon Live reported .

>> Read more trending news

A GoPro camera captured the crash that happened in August. Christopher McMahon, one of Maess’ friends, waved his arms and yelled, trying to get Larsen’s attention. When that didn’t work, and it was apparent that the larger boat was going to crash into theirs, Maess, McMahon and Roni Durham jumped into the water.

Investigators found that if they had not abandoned ship, the friends would have been injured or even killed.

Maess, however, was injured by jumping into the water and being hit by debris, including injuries to his ankle, leg and arm, vision problems and headaches. He still wears a knee brace, according to the lawsuit, in which he is suing Larsen for $372,500, Oregon Live reported .

McMahon and Durham have not filed suit yet, but have started the process. Both are said to have suffered hypothermia and cuts. Durham claims she has suffered psychological trauma and hasn’t been on a boat since the accident.

Larsen’s son-in-law was on the boat driven by Larsen at the time of the crash. He told police that he warned Larsen to pay attention and that he had seen his father-in-law on his cellphone in the past, including the day of, but not at the time of, the accident.

Larsen told Oregon Live that he wasn't using the device while he was driving the boat and that the allegations were "fake news." He also said that the lawsuit, in his opinion, was not necessary since the other people were not hurt badly.

Larsen also has a criminal case filed against him, in which he has pleaded not guilty to reckless operation of a boat, fourth-degree assault and recklessly endangering the lives of others, Oregon Live reported .

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Fishermen takes legal action against skipper whose speedboat ploughed into him

THREE fisherman could have been killed, police have said, after a speedboat ploughed into them despite their frantic efforts to avoid a collision.

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THREE fisherman found themselves a millisecond from becoming little more than seafood sticks when a speed boat ignored their frantic warnings and ploughed straight into their vessel.

Dramatic footage showed the trio only saved themselves by diving into frigid waters an instant before the speed boat hit.

One of the salmon fisherman has filed a $372,500 (A$465,000) lawsuit against the speedboat skipper following the incident that occurred on the Columbia River in the US Pacific Northwest state of Oregon.

Clatsop County Police accused boat driver Marlin Lee Larsen of several crimes after the 75-year-old told investigators he couldn’t see where he was driving because he was sitting down and the dash of his boat was blocking his view, reported The Oregonian .

Mr Larsen, who was steering the speedboat, said he probably should have been standing, according to the sheriff’s report, which noted he used a motorised scooter to get around on land.

The incident was captured by an on-board GoPro camera mounted to the dashboard of the smaller 6m long boat which Bryan Maes, Christopher McMahon and Roni Durham were fishing from.

As Mr Larsen’s 10m boat sped towards them, the video shared by Salmon Trout Steelheader and Angling Oregon, shows the trio frantically waved to attract the skipper’s attention.

However, despite their shouts the larger vessel continued straight towards them at high speed.

With the other boat clearly not slowing down, it dawned on the three their only hope was to jump into the drink which they dead moments before it hit.

The fishing boat was mangled by the collision.

Mr Larsen’s son-in-law, who also was on the boat, told investigators that he had warned his father-in-law to pay attention, that he sometimes saw him using his mobile phone while driving the boat and he had been off-and-on his phone the morning of the crash, according to the sheriff’s report.

The lawsuit, filed earlier this month, claimed Mr Larsen was boating while distracted by his phone on the morning of the August 12, 2017, when the crash occurred.

However, while Oregon law prevents drivers on the road from using mobiles no such prohibition is in place for skippers.

A police report said drugs and alcohol did not appear to be a factor in the collision.

Mr Larsen told The Oregonian the accusation that he was using his phone at the time of the crash was “fake news.” He pleaded not guilty to charges of reckless endangerment and assault and said the lawsuit was unnecessary because no one was seriously hurt.

Police investigators said that Mr Maess and the others on-board would have likely been seriously injured or killed had they not jumped into the water.

Mr Maess has claimed he now suffers from vision problems, headaches and injuries to his ankle, leg and arm from the crash. His lawyer said he’s also dealing with psychological trauma and hasn’t been on a boat since the crash. Mr McMahon and Mr Durham have claimed they also suffered injuries, including hypothermia and cuts.

When a healthy mum got so tired she couldn’t get out of bed, major alarm bells rang. She had no idea something was lurking “inside” her.

Horrifying photos show how a man was left completely covered in tar after he fell into a toxic pit of the asphalt.

David Briscoe fooled the US media by claiming he was a hero teacher at a school shooting. But one local reporter exposed the truth.

KATU has issued a Storm Tracker Weather Alert as daytime high temperatures will reach into the 90s the next few days; near 98 Saturday.

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One dead, two still missing following a capsizing on the Columbia River Bar

by Bobby Corser

ASTORIA, Ore. (KATU) — The Coast Guard tells KATU News they have recovered three people following this morning's incident on the Columbia River bar.

Unfortunately, one of the three people recovered is deceased. The conditions of the other two people recovered were not known, the Coast Guard said.

Officials say they are still looking for two other people.

Coast Guard ships from Coast Guard Station Cape Disappointment and helicopters from Coast Guard Air Stations Newport and Astoria have been involved in the search.

At 10:30 a.m. Saturday, the U.S. Coast Guard responded to an incident at the Columbia River Bar.

Officials tell KATU News that a 26’ pleasure craft capsized with five people on board.

The Columbia River Bar is considered one of the most dangerous bar crossings in the world.

This is a developing story and KATU News will update this story when more information becomes available.

Viral video of boat crash in Oregon leads to lawsuit

Oregon (KGTV) - A video of a crash last summer in Oregon is going viral; it shows a motorboat plowing into a fishing boat with three individuals onboard.

According to Pacific Northwest News :

"A GoPro camera mounted to the Weldcraft fishing boat captured the frantic seconds as (a) motorboat speeds directly at them." 

The accident left all three people, Bryan Maess, an off-duty Hermiston police officer, Christopher McMahon, 46, a law-enforcement co-worker, and another friend, Roni Durham, 57 aboard the boat with injuries.

The boat driver, Marlin Lee Larsen, 75, who uses a motorized scooter to get around, was accused of multiple crimes after telling investigators he was unable to see where he was driving because he was sitting down and the dash of his boat was blocking his view.

The lawsuit was filed earlier this month and claims Larsen was boating while distracted by his cell phone on the morning of August 12, 2017, near the mouth of the Columbia at the Pacific Ocean, just east of Fort Stevens State Park.

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An Oregon man was trapped 95 miles from shore in violent seas, his boat sinking; the rescue effort tested Coast Guard’s limits

T he Coast Guard rescue swimmer gripped the starboard side of the sinking sailboat in the dark as the waves beat against him. He called out to the man standing on the boat as a helicopter hovered overhead.

“You’re going to jump,” Miles LeComer shouted over the sound of the wind and rotor wash and waves. “And I’m going to grab you.”

David Haight had a briefcase and a knapsack ready with some of the few valuable possessions he took with him on what was supposed to be a journey from Newport to Santa Barbara. LeComer, barely able to hold onto the sailboat as it rolled up and down on the waves more than 90 miles offshore, told Haight he could only take what was in his pockets. He gave him one minute to prepare.

Haight, his sailboat disappearing beneath him, didn’t need the minute. He jumped, crashing into the frigid Pacific Ocean, engulfed, immediately knocked about by 15-foot-tall waves. He went under.

A hand grabbed him and held on.

‘There wasn’t anything to feel’

Sitting in an Elmer’s Restaurant in Clackamas about a month after his rescue, Haight, 69, flashed a sly grin that hinted at the other wild stories in his past — and possibly in his future, too.

There was the arrest, when he was 24, when he and four others were caught by federal officials trying to smuggle 40,000 pounds of marijuana from Colombia to Florida by ship. And the time he and his girlfriend at the time found a dinghy abandoned in a Florida swamp, restored it and sailed it on both the East and West coasts.

But the misadventure in July that cost him his beloved sailboat, the Windswept II, hit him hard. After all, it wasn’t until Haight’s 60s that he was able to fully live the dream that he had cooked up as a child.

One of three sons, Haight grew up in Depoe Bay in a family of strict Jehovah’s Witnesses. Before he was even a teenager, he realized he believed none of what he was being told and yearned to escape his parents’ restrictive household. Sailing was one outlet. A local resident owned a small boat that he let the kids in town sail on, and Haight took every opportunity he had, between school and working in his parents’ restaurant.

Owning his own sailboat and exploring the world became his “secret wish,” the one he’d whisper to himself when blowing out his birthday candles, he said.

“You never run out of fuel,” Haight said. “You can go as far as you want.”

Haight came close to that dream in his early 20s, when he and a girlfriend briefly owned a sailboat in California and lived on it. But the dream collapsed when, working as a commercial fisherman, Haight was asked if he wanted to smuggle marijuana from Colombia into Florida. He needed the money, so he said OK.

It was his first attempt to smuggle drugs, Haight said. When the boat reached Tampa Bay, U.S. Customs Service agents boarded it, their guns drawn, and found about $14 million worth of marijuana, according to news articles at the time. Four of the five arrested men “appeared weathered from several weeks at sea,” The Tampa Times wrote on May 23, 1978.

Haight and his girlfriend sold the sailboat, and he served two years in federal prison, getting out in 1982. In the decades since, he worked mostly in construction and waited tables. He scuba-dived most of his life, and picked up hang-gliding in the early 1990s.

“I was just a regular guy,” he said.

After his mother died in 2013, Haight and his brothers sold her house, which dropped $66,000 into Haight’s lap. With that cash infusion, he bought the Windswept II, a 38-foot, 1999 fiberglass sailboat, in 2018. After outfitting it for a long trip, he sailed to Mexico in 2022. In July 2023, he sailed to Hawaii, then to Newport, in preparation for his next trip south.

He set sail from Newport on June 29, planning to stop in Santa Barbara to finish preparing the boat for a longer trip to Mexico. He headed out to sea around 1:30 p.m. under a clear, cloudless sky. The forecast called for storms south of his location, but nothing he couldn’t handle.

Haight sailed into a storm that was worse than expected, however. Winds nearly 60 miles per hour pushed his sailboat around for two days straight.

Unable to sail in those conditions, Haight decided to “hove to,” essentially putting his boat in park, while it drifted southeast.

He was in his bunk on July 2 when he heard a strange sound — the rattle of the sailboat’s automatic bilge pump. Designed to turn on if water seeped into the boat and reached a certain level, it had never activated before in the six years he’d sailed on the boat. Haight pulled up the floorboard and saw water in the bilge.

Oh, I’m sinking, Haight thought.

But he wasn’t afraid.

“There wasn’t anything to feel,” he added. “There was just to do.”

When he realized the pump wasn’t keeping up with the rising water, he concluded he urgently needed help.

“Mayday, mayday. This is sailing vessel Windswept II,” Haight said into the radio, to anyone who might hear him, then gave his location and said his boat was taking on water.

The Coast Guard took the call, and offered to bring him a larger pump. A ship nearby listened in to the conversation and diverted course to stand by in case Haight needed extra help.

Haight thought this response would solve the problem. But then his bilge pump broke — and a back-up pump shorted out. Haight now knew he was really in trouble.

“That was when I got concerned,” Haight said.

By around 11 p.m. on July 2, he was 95 miles off shore, standing in the cabin of the boat in ankle-deep ocean water.

Then the boat’s engine broke down, too, leaving him helpless in the wind and waves as the water sloshed over Haight’s feet.

‘Are you good?’

Commander Jay Kircher was asleep in his North Bend home on July 2 when his cell phone rang. It was 10:25 p.m. There was a man in a sailboat off the coast taking on water, he was told.

Kircher got out of bed, sat down in the living room and started making calls, quickly preparing an operation to help, and potentially rescue, the man. Kircher was worried about how far the helicopter would have to fly — the man was probably too far away for a boat to reach him in time — as well as the sea conditions and the darkness. Kircher requested that a Coast Guard airplane be deployed to circle the scene and monitor the operation from above, in case there was an emergency.

It was obvious this would be a difficult operation. The distance from shore — about 83 nautical miles west of Brookings, or about 95 land-measured miles — meant they would be alone if they had a problem and needed help themselves. Because of the masts and rigging on any sailboat, it was going to be difficult, if not impossible, to lift the man in distress off of the deck. And the gale-force winds and the high waves meant both the pilot and a rescue swimmer would have extreme conditions to contend with.

“It was right on our limits, basically, for range,” Kircher said.

A crew departed North Bend in an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter at 11:17 p.m., July 2, for Brookings. They were carrying with them a 105-pound pump they planned to deliver to the sailboat — with both Haight’s pump and the Coast Guard pump working at the same time, there was a chance to save the boat.

By the time they landed around midnight, Haight had told the Coast Guard via radio that his own pump had failed, meaning he needed to be rescued. The Coast Guard crew unloaded the pump, fueled up to the top, and the pilot plugged the sinking boat’s GPS coordinates into his flight computer.

There were four of them in the helicopter: the pilot-in-command, a co-pilot, a rescue swimmer and a flight mechanic; the latter would be in charge of dropping the swimmer down into the ocean and then lifting him and the survivor up into the helicopter.

Pilot-in-Command Brandon Books, 30, brought the helicopter to about 500 feet above the water, under the clouds, where it was so dark the crew flew the whole way wearing night-vision goggles.

“Are any of you guys a little bit nervous?” the flight mechanic asked.

“Yeah, man,” Books said. “I’m a little bit nervous.”

Books, originally from Whitefish, Montana, got hooked on the idea of becoming a U.S. Coast Guard pilot as a kid while watching an episode of the reality TV show “Deadliest Catch” where the Coast Guard rescued fishermen, he said. On this day, Books was in the final weeks of his first assignment as a Coast Guard pilot.

The four of them flew for about 50 minutes before Books spotted the sole light shining from the top of the Windswept II’s main mast around 1:20 a.m.

When the helicopter appeared out of the darkness, Haight became more optimistic about his chances of survival.

In most missions of this sort, rescuers want to drop the rescuer onto the surface of the boat using a cable. That’s hard, if not impossible, with a sailboat, because of all the masts and sails and ropes and cords, especially in rough weather.

LeComer, the rescue swimmer, would have to go into the ocean and swim to the boat.

That wasn’t going to be easy either.

As the helicopter hovered, Books looked down at the waves. They were large, even larger than they’d expected.

“That’s kind of big,” Books said to LeComer over the helicopter communications system. “Are you good?”

“Oh,” LeComer said, “I’m ready to go.”

LeComer, 28, scooted to the door and the mechanic hoisted him out over the ocean and lowered him into the water.

LeComer, with a snorkel in his mouth and fins on his feet, quickly detached the hook from his harness and fixed the sailboat in his line of sight. The seas were so rough that his chief concern was that he might run out of strength while trying to swim to the sailboat. It didn’t help that when he fell into a trough between waves the Windswept II would sometimes disappear from his view.

When he reached the boat he realized it was too far gone for him to be able to climb onto it safely. The boat was leaning on its side, partially submerged. LeComer grabbed a line Haight had thrown into the water and pulled himself to the right side of the boat.

Haight had a briefcase and a bag ready with his belongings — including his high-school diploma, the ship’s log, and a cigar box with family keepsakes. He asked LeComer if he could take his bag with him.

“Only what’s in your pockets,” LeComer shouted. “I’ll give you one minute.”

Haight, wearing a life jacket, a long-sleeve shirt, jacket, jeans and tennis shoes, put his passport, the keys to his storage locker in Depoe Bay and some cash in his pockets and jumped into the water. LeComer grabbed him and, swimming sideways, kicked his fins while holding onto Haight with his right arm, propping him up on his hip.

Books, who had flown the helicopter about 50 yards away so the helicopter wouldn’t drown out their voices when LeComer and Haight tried to communicate, flew back once he saw LeComer detach from the sailboat.

“It’s going to be loud and windy,” LeComer said.

That’s when he noticed that Haight seemed almost calm, “a pretty seasoned mariner.”

After he hooked Haight onto his harness, LeComer gave a thumbs up to the helicopter hovering 100 feet above them, and the mechanic dropped the cable with the hook. The heavy waves and wind bounced LeComer and Haight around, moving them off-course from the descending cable.

They needed to put the cable right on the two dots in the ocean that were LeComer and Haight, a tough feat for even the most skilled pilot and mechanic in such conditions.

“Forward and right 10,” the flight mechanic said to Books, who then maneuvered the 9,000-pound helicopter about 10 yards as directed, then overshot by another 10 yards. “Back 10.”

Finally — after about eight minutes — LeComer was able to grab the cable. He attached it to his harness, gave the flight mechanic another thumbs up and the two soon were in the air.

Once they were in the helicopter, LeComer checked over Haight and concluded he didn’t need to go to a hospital. He gave him a warming blanket, and Books turned on the autopilot, lifting the helicopter up to 500 feet and directed it back toward Brookings. It was 1:42 a.m., just 22 minutes since the Coast Guard helicopter had arrived.

They flew under the clouds in almost complete darkness until Books spied clouds that were a little thinner.

“Do you want to climb up above these clouds?” Books asked the co-pilot.

“Yeah, it looks like it’ll be nicer up there,” the co-pilot said.

They climbed to about 1,500 feet above sea level, where they could see the stars. The relief was palpable once they spotted the shore lights, Books said.

While the Coast Guard crew regularly goes out on challenging rescue missions, this one on July 3 was particularly difficult, given how far the sinking boat was from shore, the weather and the condition of the sea.

The operation, Kircher said, “was kind of in a different league.”

‘Not over yet’

When LeComer got home early on the morning of the rescue, he scarfed down a breakfast burrito and called his mom to tell her an abbreviated version of the operation.

“Thanks for putting me in swimming lessons, mom,” LeComer said to her.

Books worked another week, wrapping up his three-and-a-half year assignment in North Bend. Three weeks later, he was in New Jersey for his new assignment.

Haight never figured out why his sailboat sprung a leak. It’s possible that part of the boat had been weakened while stuck on a sandbar the previous year, then was stressed too much by the strong winds on his way to California. But it had survived plenty of strong storms before the one that sank the boat, so he’s still unsure.

He bought a car in Portland and is planning to drive to Mexico to visit friends. While he hasn’t come to terms with losing his boat, he’s grateful for the opportunity the Windswept II gave him — and for the Coast Guard crew that saved him from it.

“How often does somebody get to live their dream?” Haight said. “And I’m still living my dream. It is not over yet.”

Correction: This article has been updated to correct two errors: David Haight was arrested while trying to smuggle 40,000 pounds of marijuana, not tons, and his sailboat was made of fiberglass, not wood.

— Fedor Zarkhin is a breaking news and enterprise reporter. Do you have a story? Reach him at 971-373-2905; fzarkhin@oregonian.

Our journalism needs your support. Subscribe today to OregonLive.com .

©2024 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit oregonlive.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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Millionaire supermarket heir ‘ploughs luxury yacht into boat killing fisherman in hit-and-run in Brit holiday hotspot’

• Zeenia Naqvee , Foreign News Reporter
• Published : 13:06, 30 Aug 2024
• Updated : 13:31, 30 Aug 2024

A MILLIONAIRE supermarket heir is accused of crashing his dad's yacht into a small boat, killing a fisherman.

Dennis Viehof, 35, then allegedly sped away from the scene on the £3.3 million yacht he borrowed from his dad in holiday hotspot Majorca.

German national Viehof - the son of millionaire Klaus Viehof, 62 - allegedly lost control of the 20-metre-long La Luna yacht on August 23 in fishing town Cala Bona.

Witnesses saw the yacht going too quickly before it hit and overpowered the comparatively smaller fishing boat carrying three.

The keen anglers were out hunting for some squid and hoping to land some at around 10pm.

But the yacht allegedly failed to stop and help the fisherman and promising volleyball player Guillem Comamala, understood to be 20, died at the scene.

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Brit lookout & engineer on doomed superyacht placed under manslaughter probe

German millionaire wants 10 people to live on his New Zealand farm for FREE

Viehof - heir to the Allkauf supermarket fortune - is currently being investigated for manslaughter after his allegedly reckless control of the luxury yacht.

The surviving fishermen say the impact of the hit was so severe it ripped the engine from the boat, leaving it completely incapacitated.

The black yacht was reportedly given a rushed and frantic cleaning the next morning.

Glasses were discarded into the harbour basin just before cops arrived to seal off the vessel.

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The Guardia Civil suspect the cleanup operation may have been an attempt to erase any traces of a wild night of partying.

But a cleaner on the sailing boat insisted she was unaware of the tragic accident and just followed Viehof's basic instructions.

Investigators have since revealed that the yacht had apparently been recklessly speeding across the water with its powerful 1550 hp engine.

They also revealed that its crew failed to slow down or offer any assistance even after seeing the effects of the collision.

They're also looking into whether anyone aboard the ship tried to flee the scene after and examining the crew's claim that they were unaware of the fatal crash.

Cops reportedly found a phone during their search of the yacht and hope it can reveal vital clues related to last Friday's incident.

Surveillance footage from the nearby yacht club is now under review to pinpoint the exact number of people aboard the vessel on August 23.

Viehof was quizzed by local cops on August 24, the day after the incident as part of the manslaughter investigation.

Infobae reports that he voluntarily pleaded guilty to negligent homicide and failure to provide assistance and was released after exercising his right not to testify.

The investigation continues.

Tributes flooded in for popular volleyball player Guillem and his club Club Voleibol Portol issued a moving statement.

They said: "A very sad day for our family. We, from the Portol Volleyball Club, want to extend our deepest condolences to the family, friends, and acquaintances of Guillem Comamala Fiol.

"As a club, we had the privilege of watching him grow up from a young age. He won us all over with his personality and his skills as a player.

"We shared spectacular moments with him, lifting trophies, winning medals, overcoming defeats, but above all, growing together and feeling proud to share unforgettable moments.

"We will always carry you with us, Guillem, always by our side, fighting like a superhero and smiling despite adversity. Thank you for everything, Guillem, you are and will always be eternal."

The Viehofs are one of Germany's wealthiest families. Dennis's dad Klaus is the son of Eugen Viehof, who sold his Allkauf retail group in 1998, according to the Majorca Daily Bulletin.

They also report that Dennis is a pilot who has had his aviation licence since he was just 18.

1 dead and 2 missing after boat capsizes off Oregon coast in ‘graveyard of the Pacific’

ASTORIA Ore. (KPTV) - A person is dead and a man and an 11-year-old boy are missing after a boat carrying five people capsized near Astoria on Saturday, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

At about 10:30 a.m., three Coast Guard boats and one helicopter responded to the area off the Columbia River Bar after call reporting a “pleasure boat” had capsized.

According to a USCG spokesperson, crews were able to rescue three of the five people and take them to a hospital.

On Sunday, the Coast Guard said one of the rescued people later died in the hospital. The condition of the other two rescued people is not known.

The final two people, a 54-year-old man and an 11-year-old boy, are still missing.

The USCG said an aircrew from Astoria and a boat crew from Cape Disappointment spent most of Saturday searching. Just after 9 p.m., they ended the search without finding either person.

Oregon State Parks reports about two thousand ships have sunk at the Columbia River Bar since record-keeping began.

Jeff Keightley has worked off the Oregon coast for 15 years running Astoria Fishing Charter and Guide Service, and estimates he’s crossed the bar thousands of times. He said that’s no easy feat.

“I think everybody knows it’s called the graveyard of the Pacific,” Keightley said. “Current rushes out and gets into that swell and it curls and breaks, and that’s a really bad place to put your boat.”

Keightley said a life jacket might mean the difference between life and death.

“Know your limits. And if you don’t know your limits you need to learn from someone who has experience crossing the bar.”

This is a developing story and updates will be added as available.

Copyright 2024 KPTV-KPDX. All rights reserved.

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Video shows stolen 60-foot yacht crashing into boats in wild chase across California harbor: "Everything came crashing in on me"

March 11, 2022 / 9:31 AM EST / CBS/AP

A man who stole a 60-foot yacht was arrested Thursday after a 10-minute chase that ended with him hitting two other boats and a seawall in Newport Beach harbor, police said. The wild scene was all captured on video, CBS Los Angeles reports.

A report of someone vandalizing a yacht led police to the Pacific Coast Highway shortly after 10 a.m. but when officers arrived they said the suspect jumped into the boat and took off, authorities said.

Dylan Eckardt took video of the boat colliding with a docked sailboat, knocking down its mast.

Debora Dolly was aboard the sailboat when it was struck.

"The entire starboard side came crashing in on me and it didn't stop. It came once, twice, three times," she told CBS Los Angeles. "So the whole boat, the poles, the steel,  the enclosure, everything came crashing in on me."

Dolly said she hit her head but otherwise was fine.

After hitting the sailboat, the boat backed up, circled and, pursued by the Orange County Sheriff's Department Harbor Patrol, continued through the harbor until it hit another parked vessel then slammed into a wall beside a bridge.

"The sounds of him hitting that wall brought everyone out of their houses," witness Kai McCartney told CBS Los Angeles.

Joel Siam, 38, of San Diego was arrested on suspicion of grand theft of a boat and possession of a stolen boat and was jailed on $3 million bail, authorities said.

It wasn't immediately clear whether he had an attorney to speak on his behalf.

The yacht was in a dock for maintenance and the keys were inside when it was taken, sheriff's deputies said.

The owner of the stolen boat told the station that it was bought new in August and was to be used for a charter business. The owner also said a half-bottle of tequila from inside the yacht was now gone.

CBS Los Angeles reported that one of the boats damaged in the incident was a 1960 Tolleycraft. The owner had just gotten delivered on Saturday — he hadn't even gotten a chance to take it out yet.

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3 missing after plane crashes into residential neighborhood in Oregon: Officials

A small, twin-engine plane crashed into a residential neighborhood in Fairview, Oregon, on Saturday, authorities said.

At least three people are missing according to an initial report, said Gresham Fire Chief Scott Lewis.

Two people were aboard the plane and one residential occupant is missing, Lewis said.

The plane crashed near Troutdale Airport in Oregon around 10:30 a.m. local time hitting a power pole or tower, which caused a brush fire. The aircraft then crashed into a building of connected townhomes, igniting a fire in two structures, before spreading into four, the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office said at a press conference Saturday.

At least five families have been displaced, with a sixth condo currently being evaluated, according to Lewis.

Two transmission lines from Portland General Electric remain down Saturday afternoon, according to officials.

Fairview is about 20 minutes outside of Portland, Oregon.

Debris from the crash is scattered across multiple areas, and the Sheriff's Office is securing the scene to assist the FAA investigation.

Photos show thick smoke and a burning home after the plane crashed.

The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate. The NTSBwill be in charge of the investigation and will provide any updates.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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A Sea Rescue, a Stolen Boat and, Yes, a ‘Goonies’ Angle

The authorities in Oregon said a capsized boat was stolen by a man who had paid a visit to a nearby house made famous in “The Goonies.” The twists continued.

By Remy Tumin

When the Coast Guard Station Cape Disappointment received a mayday call from a mariner in distress Friday morning, the agency went into full-rescue mode, deploying a 47-foot lifeboat, calling the aircrew of a Jayhawk helicopter and mobilizing multiple crews of the National Motor Lifeboat School who were conducting training nearby.

It would turn out that the man who needed saving would have some explaining to do if he made it safely to land.

The 35-foot boat was taking on water six miles off the coast of Astoria, Ore., near the mouth of the Columbia River in an area known as the Columbia Bar, which is frequently referred to as the Graveyard of the Pacific and is believed among mariners to be one of the most dangerous crossings in the world.

The Coast Guard reported conditions of 20-foot seas and extremely high wind speeds as a rescue swimmer, a student of the Advanced Helicopter Rescue School, was deployed into the water using a winch cable before swimming toward the sinking boat. Just as the rescuer made his approach, a breaking wave capsized the boat, throwing the mariner overboard. The rescue swimmer reached the mariner in the water, the Coast Guard said in a statement, and both were lifted up to the helicopter and transported to land.

Hours later, the swimmer, John Walton, known as Branch, an Aviation Survival Technician Third Class, graduated from training. It was the first time he saved a life, the Coast Guard said.

The dramatic rescue was all captured on video. But the drama did not stop there.

The rescued mariner, Jericho Labonte, had stolen the boat from a nearby marina in West Mooring Basin in Astoria, according to the police. And a few days before that, he left a dead fish on the steps of the house made famous by the 1985 film “The Goonies,” which follows the fantastical adventures of a group of children following an old treasure map.

Mr. Labonte filmed himself dropping the fish off at the house, calling out the movie’s signature line of “Hey, you guys!” and posted it to Facebook.

Mr. Labonte was arrested Friday night in Seaside, Ore., about 17 miles south of Astoria, on charges of theft, endangering another person, unauthorized use of a vehicle and criminal mischief, the Astoria police said in a statement. But Mr. Labonte, who is originally from British Columbia, was also wanted by Canadian authorities on charges of mischief, criminal harassment and failure to comply, Chief Stacy Kelly of the Astoria Police Department told The New York Times on Sunday.

Chief Kelly said Mr. Labonte was in the custody of U.S. immigration officials for illegally crossing the border from Canada.

The small, commercial fishing town has never seen anything “this crazy,” the chief said. “Not one person causing so much mayhem. That’s for sure.”

Chief Kelly said it was unclear how long Mr. Labonte had been in the area, which is more than 90 miles northwest of Portland, but said the police received a phone call from a woman in Astoria alerting them to the fish video. The woman was “very concerned” to learn that Mr. Labonte was in town and “scared to death” that he was in the area, and she alerted the police to his previous criminal history.

When the Coast Guard released the video of the harrowing rescue, the head of port security for Astoria, Matt Hansen, recognized the boat and confirmed it was stolen, Chief Kelly said.

“The Columbia Bar is extremely dangerous under the best of conditions,” he said. “The fact he made it across the bar is miraculous.”

But by the time the video had been released, Mr. Labonte had left an area hospital and was at large. Another community member alerted the police when Mr. Labonte was seen at a warming center in town later that day. He was then arrested.

Chief Kelly attributed Mr. Labonte’s arrest to a large community effort.

Among the people who helped was Jeff Keightley, a charter boat captain in Astoria. Mr. Keightley took a man who called himself Philip Livingston out for a charter fishing trip on the morning of Feb. 1.

Mr. Keightley originally welcomed the off-season trip. But the man repeatedly asked Mr. Keightley to take him out to 3,000 feet, about 30 miles offshore where bottom fishing is impossible. He requested a captain’s hat and insisted on joining the commercial crabbing fleet, which were far offshore. When the man hooked a 27-inch lingcod, he was ready to go back to shore, which also surprised Mr. Keightley.

“The number of times I’ve gotten one fish and went back in — that was a new record,” Mr. Keightley said in an interview on Sunday.

When the Coast Guard video was released, Mr. Keightley’s girlfriend, Julianna Edmiston, who was a deckhand aboard the charter, recognized the man being rescued.

It was Mr. Labonte.

Mr. Keightley then realized that the gossip about a dead fish on the steps of the house in “The Goonies” was about the one caught on his boat.

“People often ask me about the weirdest thing that ever happened,” he said, recalling a time when a man was drunk during a sturgeon competition and jumped overboard. “This is way weirder.”

An earlier version of this article misidentified the location of Mr. Labonte’s arrest. It is Seaside, Ore., not Astoria, Ore.

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