Fishermen plucked to dafety in breakaway ice drama

More than 130 fisherman stranded for up to four hours on a miles-wide ice floe that broke away from Lake Erie’s shoreline were plucked to safety.

One man fell into the water during the freezing ordeal in Ohio and later died.

Coastguard spokesman Chief Petty Officer Robert Lanier said 134 people had been plucked from the ice by last night.

Rescuers lowered baskets on to the ice from helicopters and people climbed in and were lifted to safety. Others boarded whirring air boats that glided across the ice.

The day began with fishermen setting down wooden pallets to create a bridge over a crack in the ice so they could roam further out on the lake. But the planks fell into the water when the ice shifted, stranding the fishermen about 1,000 yards from the shore.

“We get people out here who don’t know how to read the ice,” Ottawa County Sheriff Bob Bratton said. “What happened here was just idiotic. I don’t know how else to put it.”

The man who died, Leslie Love, 65, of New Albany, Ohio, fell into the water while searching with others for a link to the shoreline, Sheriff Bratton said. The man was flown to a hospital but pronounced dead, he said.

Mr Love died of an apparent heart attack after his snowmobile broke through the ice while he was searching for a safe place to cross back to shore, according to the Ottawa County sheriff’s office.

He collapsed after he was helped back onto solid ice, the sheriff’s office said.

Four helicopters were sent from Michigan and eight air boats from the coastguard, Mr Lanier said. Local authorities also sent air boats out on the ice.

Ice on western sections of Lake Erie was up to 2ft thick yesterday, National Weather Service meteorologist Bill Randel said. The ice cracked as temperatures rose and winds of up to 35mph pushed on the ice.

When fishermen realised late in the morning that the ice had broken away, they began to debate the best way off. Some chose to sit and wait for authorities, while others headed east in search of an ice bridge.

Fishermen closer to the ice break used their mobile phones to warn those further out on the ice.

Others managed to get to land on their own by riding their all-terrain vehicles about five miles east to where ice had not broken away.

Those rescued had to leave behind most of their equipment, such as coolers, snowmobiles and all terrain vehicles.

Ice fisherman who regularly visit the lake have said this winter’s thick ice has lured more people to the lake. The numbers of ice fishermen has been unprecedented, said Oak Harbour resident Peter Harrison, who has lived on the shore for 40 years.

“There was a heck of a city out there for the last week and a half, two weeks,” the 71-year-old said.

The rescue operation cost thousands of dollars and pulled emergency responders away from other duties, Sheriff Bratton said.

But none of the fishermen would be forced to cover the cost of rescue operations, Mr Lanier said.

“To the best of my knowledge, they didn’t break any laws,” he said. “Ice fishing is a culture here on the Great Lakes.”