The Lanai boat rescue found a father and two sons on an overturned hull in October 2024. Almost five hours passed after a mayday gave no location.
The mayday was heard at 12:10 p.m. A man said his boat had capsized. The transmission did not provide a location or further details.
Somewhere offshore, a father and his two sons were waiting on the hull of their overturned sixteen-foot boat.
The Lanai father-and-sons rescue took place on October 26, 2024. The boys were eight and twelve. None of the three was wearing a life jacket when the helicopter crew found them.
Lanai boat rescue: A search wider than one island
Coast Guard watchstanders in Honolulu broadcast the emergency and launched an MH-65 helicopter from Air Station Barbers Point. An HC-130 aircraft already airborne also diverted to the search.
Without a location in the original call, the aircrews searched water west of Maui, south of Lanai and west of Kaho‘olawe.
The family’s overturned boat was eventually found about seven miles south of Manele Harbor. The time was approximately 5:05 p.m.—nearly five hours after the mayday.
The father and both boys were clinging to the hull. The man later reported that a wave had swamped the boat.
Those facts make the delay more understandable without making it less frightening. Responders knew a boat had capsized, but a voice over a radio had not told them which part of a large stretch of water to examine first.
Three people came off the hull
The helicopter deployed a rescue swimmer and hoisted all three aboard. The crew took them to Kahului Airport on Maui. No injuries were reported.
At the time of the rescue, the Coast Guard recorded winds of about nine miles per hour and seas of three to five feet. The release does not establish identical conditions throughout the entire afternoon.
The handheld radio had allowed the father to communicate the emergency even after his boat overturned. The absence of a position still left aircraft with a wide search to complete.
For the family, the hull remained a place to hold on until that search reached them. For the helicopter crew, it was a small object to distinguish from the surrounding sea.
The account ends with a photograph at an airport rather than another unanswered transmission. Between those two images—the incomplete mayday and the reunion on land—were nearly five hours during which the rescuers had to find the family’s place on the water.
Sources and reporting
Researched reporting: an original narrative based on the published records linked below.
