SHOREHAM, N.Y. (WPIX) — Police came to the rescue of two brothers who fell overboard while fishing in the Long Island Sound on Monday evening and clung to an inflatable seat cushion until help arrived, authorities said.
Sometime after launching their 6-foot inflatable raft off of Shoreham Beach in New York, Gustavo and Gusmil Quinones were struck by a rogue wave and knocked overboard, officials said. When the brothers had not returned to shore by 7:30 p.m., police were contacted.
After about a half-hour of searching, officers Cory Kim and Robert Reed of the department’s Marine Bureau heard the brothers’ cries for help, but couldn’t see them in the darkness, authorities said.
With the help of a spotlight cast by a department aviation unit, Kim and Reed found the brothers and pulled them to safety, officials said.
Despite being in the water for more than an hour, clinging to an inflatable seat cushion from the raft until their rescue, neither Gustavo, 30, nor Gusmil, 35, was injured, according to authorities.
The brothers, who are from Brooklyn, New York, were wearing life jackets when they went over, officials said.