×

Coast Guard makes second rescue of Mississippi coast boaters in two days

By Cory Johnson Jan 31, 2023 | 2:26 PM

OCEAN SPRINGS, Miss. (WKRG) –  The U.S. Coast Guard station in Gulfport rescued a second group of boaters on Tuesday, Jan. 31, one day after a rescue miles down the shoreline.

The branch’s public affairs unit confirmed around 2 p.m. Tuesday afternoon that Victoria Farr, 42; Richard Allen, 37; Piper Farr, 12; and Chase Craig, 11 were rescued after they were reported missing about 9 hours earlier.

The Coast Guard Sector in Mobile received a call around 4:27 a.m. from a concerned family friend stating two adults and two children aboard did not come home after their expected return time of 8 p.m near Biloxi Bay.

The group was in a 19-foot red and white Mako skiff-style boat. The boaters’ truck and trailer was found unattended at the Lake Mars Pier in Ocean Springs early Tuesday morning.

Military personnel launched two rescue boats from the Gulfport station and an aircraft from the Coast Guard Aviation Training Center in Mobile to search for the group. 

Other crews from the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources, National Park Service and Jackson County Sheriff’s Department also searched for the boaters.

The rescue came one day after three people were rescued from a sinking boat off the coast in Pascagoula. Coast Guard members found one boater in a life raft and two others standing on the bow of the boat after a distress alert called in around 8 a.m.