Inside the U.S. Coast Guard`s Mass-Rescue Operations

On October 4, 1980, 120 miles off the coast of southeast Alaska, the crew of the cruise ship Prinsendam alerted the U.S. Coast Guard to a fire in the ship’s engine room. Aboard were 524 passengers and crew. Like most Alaska cruises, most of the passengers were over age 60. The nearest rescue resources were 170 miles away. The water temperature was in the mid-50s. When the captain gave the order to abandon ship, all the ingredients for a major disaster were in place.

Ever since the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, the world’s maritime nations have created and updated a framework to maintain minimum safety standards for merchant and passenger vessels. For the United States this responsibility falls to the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG). The USCG is organized into nine districts, each of which is assigned a passenger vessel safety specialist whose major role is to be the liaison between the shipping industry and USCG for rescue response as well as implementing passenger vessel safety regulations.

“We call any event that overwhelms the initial response a mass-rescue operation (MRO),” says LCDR Patrick Drayer, the passenger vessel safety specialist for 13th Coast Guard District, which covers the Pacific Northwest. “Our definition of an MRO is the same as civilian agencies use for an MCI. The biggest challenge for an MRO is the remoteness. In the Pacific Northwest we have many areas with few or no response capabilities. It can be several hours for a rescue asset to arrive on a scene, either air or surface.

“Another unique aspect is that the scene is moving. The wind, waves and current will move a disabled vessel, life rafts or people in the water and spread them out over a larger area as time goes on. We have computer programs that can predict movement for all these types of situations to help us know where to search as time goes by.

“In addition, aviation assets, helicopter or fixed-wing, are likely to be the first on scene for a remote MRO. They will give an initial briefing of what they see to the rescue command center before starting rescue operations. They do a scene size-up, just like in a land-based MCI. A fixed-wing aircraft makes an excellent on-scene commander. If USCG aircraft are too far away, other military aircraft can be used to fulfill this role.”

Another major difference for an MRO is that civilian vessels are recruited to assist due to the time it can take USCG rescue boats, ships or even aircraft to arrive. Plus, USCG helicopters can only carry a limited number of people. Within minutes of a USCG rescue center being notified of a vessel in distress, they will transmit the information with the location on marine VHF radio channel 16, a common frequency all vessels monitor. They will ask any vessel near that location to respond and assist.

Interface With 9-1-1

In a metropolitan area such as San Francisco or New York City, after the initial USCG assets are dispatched, the rescue command center will call the local 9-1-1 communications center and activate local first responders to respond to a prearranged landing site. These sites are designated by the MRO plan developed together by the USCG and local first responders. Rescue and EMS then respond to the staging and landing sites to receive patients. Based on what the first USCG or fire-rescue boats find on scene, civil assets may be ferried to the scene to extricate trapped passengers by boat or helicopter.

“The Incident Command System is utilized by all responders with a unified command structure to handle the entire incident, both the water and land phases,” explains Drayer. “That communication interface between the water and land resources is one of the most critical factors of a successful MRO and one we in the USCG are not used to doing on a regular basis. That’s why the full-scale exercises are so crucial in working out these communications issues: to make sure all the passengers are located and accounted for. It’s vital to have all the players in the same room at the emergency operations center for these events.”

When civilian fire-rescue boats respond, they report to the USCG on-scene commander, who will probably be on one of the larger 87- or 110-foot cutters used for assignments.

“Here in the Puget Sound, we also use the car and passenger ferries as responders to large incidents,” says Drayer. “They can be used as triage and treatment facilities on scene, with the smaller boats transporting the victims to the ferries. Medical personnel can be transported out to these ferries to do triage and treatment. If a ferry is first on scene, the captain acts as the on-scene rescue commander until relieved by a USCG vessel. The ferries are important partners in MRO situations. Every vessel over 1,600 tons gross weight is required to carry a small boat, usually a rigid-hull inflatable, that can be used for rescue operations. So any vessel of this size can begin rescue operations immediately.”

For events farther out to sea, merchant ships are recruited to help. The Automated Mutual-Assistance Vessel Rescue (AMVER) system keeps track of about 7,000 oceangoing vessels around the world. It’s a voluntary system sponsored by the USCG that began about 50 years ago. The information is only available to search and rescue (SAR) centers, but any SAR center in the world can access the information. The SAR center can see ship locations and request the closest one to respond to an emergency. Drayer says he’s never heard of a ship declining to go to the assistance of another vessel.

In fact, several commercial ships were requested to respond to the Prinsendam emergency in 1980. One, a 1,000-foot supertanker, was a major player in the incident. It took aboard several hundred passengers and had a helicopter landing pad that was used by rescue helicopters. This allowed them to avoid the long trip to land to offload survivors. A medical team from Sitka, Alaska, and a team of U.S. Air Force medical personnel were flown out to the tanker to care for the sick and injured.

Port Angeles Exercise

EMS World was invited to observe an MRO exercise off the coast of northwest Washington, near the town of Port Angeles. Due to its location several miles from shore and the water temperature, no live personnel were put in the water. About 60 survival suits were placed in the water instead. Each had a number and list of injuries. When that suit reached the triage site on land, live “victims” took the place of each suit to be triaged, treated and transported.

“The Port Angeles exercise was developed to test new land triage sites,” says Lt. Erin Roberts, a USCG contingency planner based in Seattle. “We also wanted to test internal and external communications during a mass-rescue event. In addition we wanted to look at long-term mitigation of a major ship sinking, such as longer-term pollution concerns, dangers to navigation for other ships, and salvage operations.

“The exercise included boats from the Canadian Coast Guard and a rescue helicopter from the Royal Canadian Air Force. We have a very close working relationship with them since the international border runs through our response area. We frequently work with them, and the two rescue coordination centers, U.S. and Canadian, work together during any events along the border waters. Any large event will have both Canadian and U.S. responders, regardless of in whose waters it is located. The exercise pointed out some important learning points, such as that some of our radio frequencies were not available to the Canadian vessels. So we learned a great deal about communications in this exercise.

“When I reached out to the local fire and EMS agencies to talk about triage sites,” Roberts says, “we thought our Coast Guard station at Port Angeles would make an excellent site. It was secure to keep unwanted personnel out and keep victims from wandering away. It also had docks where rescue boats could easily unload patients. Plus, since it was also an air station, the runway area could accommodate helicopter air ambulances. What we found during the exercise was that it took much too long to get from that triage point to the local hospital. With it being a small town, there were not enough ambulances available to rapidly move the victims due to the long round-trip times. We found that the city pier located near the downtown area was a five-minute trip to the medical center. We would just need more law enforcement involvement to provide the security to cordon it off from the public.”

Once victims are back on land, buses and local buildings can be used to rewarm them and keep them organized. The MRO plan designates several ports that could be used as landing points so victims can be brought to shore as quickly as possible. If that is on one of the islands in Puget Sound, where there are no hospitals, they will need to use many more air assets to transport the injured to medical centers. This could include military and law enforcement helicopters and aircraft.

Behind the scenes the local emergency managers play an important role. The Coast Guard is mostly concerned with the water rescue aspects of the MRO. The local authorities are responsible for the victims once they’re on land. So the local emergency operations centers are activated during these exercises. They will have to figure out how to feed, clothe and house potentially hundreds of victims for several days.

The Alaska Challenge

As can be imagined, Alaska provides the greatest challenge for MROs. The biggest are the size of the area, the remoteness, weather and lack of resources. There is also a lack of infrastructure to handle an MRO involving hundreds of people. Many towns are only accessible by boat or aircraft. The medical facilities are few and far between. Even housing several hundred uninjured passengers can be problematic in many areas. In addition, cruise ship passengers in Alaska tend to be older. They have mobility problems and chronic health issues. Just getting them off a ship in distress can be very difficult.

“The big rescue players here are the USCG, the military and the state of Alaska,” explains Cecil McNutt, Jr., the passenger vessel safety specialist for the 17th Coast Guard District, which includes Alaska. “There is a much greater use of military assets for both normal SAR and MRO in Alaska due to the lack of local governmental agencies. Our typical responders who are first on scene are aviation assets due to the large distances.”

The other important asset is the Good Samaritan ships. These could be fishing vessels close to the scene. In addition, cruise ships can play large roles in a MRO. They tend to use the same routes and destinations, so if one gets into trouble, there are often others within a few hours’ sailing time.

“The Arctic Chinook exercise in August 2016 was designed around a cruise ship that sank with several hundred passengers stranded ashore in a wilderness area,” says Paul Webb, a SAR specialist with the 17th District. “Aviation assets dropped U.S. Air Force pararescuers and sustainment packages that included clothing, food, tents, sleeping gear and medical supplies. Then helicopters flew in to evacuate the passengers. Both Canadian and USAF units have built Arctic sustainment packages for MROs involving a cruise ship or airliner.

“The small towns and villages located around the coast of Alaska are very isolated, so mutual aid is not often available. Most have some form of airstrip, but they may not be able to handle larger aircraft. They also have limited fuel supplies. One thing most of these villages do have is some sort of meeting hall or school that could be used to house victims. We develop community mass-rescue plans with village leaders to deal with these challenges. We identify local medical clinics, schools, meeting halls, possible landing points for rescue boats and any other local resources that might assist during an MRO.”

Epilogue: Prinsendam

As soon as possible, USCG, USAF and Canadian Air Force rescue helicopters and planes began to arrive over the Prinsendam. USAF pararescuers were lowered to lifeboats to start caring for patients. Realizing the 65-foot climb up the side of the supertanker was out of the question for most of the passengers, the helicopters began to hoist them from the lifeboats and land them on the tanker. A large USCG cutter and another ship arrived within a few hours and began taking on passengers. By the end of the event, all 524 passengers and crew were rescued without a single fatality. It is still considered a model MRO today.

Barry Smith is an instructor in the education department at the Regional Emergency Medical Services Authority (REMSA) in Reno, NV. Contact him at bsmith@remsa-cf.com.