Coast Guard's response time questioned at N.J. hearing

CAPE MAY - The owner of a scallop trawler that sank 75 miles off the Jersey Shore last month - claiming the lives of his two sons, his brother, and three other crew members - questioned the response time of the Coast Guard during the opening yesterday of an inquiry by the agency into the accident and rescue efforts.

"If the EPIRB did exactly what it was supposed to do, I'm still thinking that somebody else ain't doing what they was supposed to do," said Roy Smith Sr., referring to the craft's emergency beacon. "Then maybe there would have been three survivors instead of one."

As the owner of the Lady Mary, Smith is permitted to question witnesses during the weeklong hearings.

The day's witnesses - the Coast Guard helicopter pilot dispatched to where the 71-foot vessel sank, a rescue swimmer who retrieved the lone survivor and two others from the roiling ocean, and a rescue coordinator - testified that a crew was dispatched from the Coast Guard's Atlantic City station minutes after a distress signal was received from the boat's emergency position-indicating radiobeacon, or EPIRB, at 7:07 a.m. March 24.

The only survivor was Jose Luis Arias, of Wildwood and Raleigh, N.C., who was found floating in the 40-degree ocean clinging to a deck plank. He has insisted since the time he was rescued that the boat sank around 5 a.m.

Arias, a native of Mexico, will testify before the panel later this week with the aid of a translator.

No one has been able to account for the delay between when Arias, 57, says the boat sank and the time the first signal was received. The device emits a call through the international satellite system for search-and-rescue as soon as it is deployed or it hits the water.

The Coast Guard has not said whether it believed the beacon malfunctioned that day. According to the agency, its serial number had not been entered into an official national registry, which helps rescuers obtain information about the boat, its owners, and other critical facts during an emergency.

Smith said yesterday that he had proof the EPIRB was registered and operational.

The Coast Guard has convened the five-member investigative panel to try to determine the cause of the accident and to make safety recommendations for others in the commercial-fishing industry.

The panel includes a representative from the National Transportation Safety Board, which will issue its own report. The panel does not presume to investigate criminal wrongdoing, but should an allegation arise, it will refer its findings to the U.S. Attorney's Office, said Coast Guard Cmdr. Kyle McAvoy.

Lt. Cmdr. Tina Pena, who flew the rescue helicopter, and a rescue swimmer offered compelling testimony yesterday about what they saw when they arrived in the area off Cape May where the boat sank.

Pena said she and her crew got the call about 7:30 a.m. and were airborne by 7:55. They headed southeast from Atlantic City under a clear sky, but in gusty tail winds. "A couple of times, the aircraft shuddered pretty well," she said.

By 8:20 a.m., they were on the scene. At first, Pena said, they couldn't see much in the choppy ocean, but after circling a couple of times, the rescue swimmer, Petty Officer 3d Class David Downham, spotted a red life raft.

The excited rescuers thought they saw an arm flapping from the raft, Pena said. Downham was deployed from the chopper down a rope, but found the raft empty. The "arm" had been a loose piece of white plastic.

He radio-transmitted the raft's serial numbers to Pena, who called them in to the base once the helicopter regained enough altitude to obtain radio frequency.

After Downham was pulled back into the chopper, Pena circled once again. This time, a plank was seen floating in the water. Again, Pena brought the aircraft down low. There was something else - the red of a crew member's neoprene survival suit.

Downham put his mask and flippers back on. He was lowered down - this time with a rescue basket - where he plucked Arias from the water.

The survivor was conscious and talking. In broken English, he gave his rescuers sketchy information about the sinking - that there had been six others on board and that he believed all were wearing survival suits.

The crew then noticed another red suit. Attached to a line, Downham deployed from the craft and swam to the suit. He saw that a man was inside. He was floating facedown.

Downham connected the crew member to a rope harness, and both were hoisted up to the helicopter. The copilot pulled the man inside. (Downham said that later, for the entire 45-minute flight back to Atlantic City, he performed CPR on the man.)

At the sight of a third body, Downham immediately went back down.

But time was running out. Pena estimated that, because hovering had consumed much of their fuel, they had about five minutes left before they had to return to the base. They had left Atlantic City with a "two-hour bag of gas," according to Pena.

Downham had to perform a quick "hook" rescue to get the third crew member into the chopper. He noticed that the man exhibited "extreme signs of death," he testified yesterday.

"This time frame is just what bothers me now," said Smith, as he questioned Pena about the mission.

"The time it took the aircraft to get to the scene, find survivors, and get back - there is some time element here that is just not making much sense to me.

"And if everybody had on a survival suit" - as Arias at first said on the day of the rescue - "then where are they?" Smith asked.

"If I had found all seven people, you better believe I would have gotten those fishing vessels over there," Pena said, referring to a fleet of about 15 fishing boats and a freighter that were far off in the distance. "I would have flown over and gotten the attention of one of them."

The bodies of Smith's two sons, Roy "Bobo" Smith Jr., 42, and Timothy "Timbo" Smith, 37, of Mesic, N.C., and the Whitesboro section of Middle Township, were recovered by Pena and her crew.

Never recovered were the bodies of Smith's brother, Bernie "Tarzan" Smith, 59, of Wildwood; Frank Credle, who lived on the boat in Cape May; and Frank Reyes, of Cape May Court House. A seventh crew member, also not recovered, has been identified by the Coast Guard as William Torres, of Wildwood.

A woman who attended the hearing yesterday said the Coast Guard had misidentified the seventh man. A Coast Guard official confirmed that the agency was investigating the misidentification and would likely issue a correction.