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Press Release | Dec. 12, 2024

Coast Guard, partners searching for missing swimmer off Kauai

U.S. Coast Guard District 14 Public Affairs Office at (808) 535-3230 / After Hours (808) 265-7748 or email hawaiipacific@uscg.mil.

HONOLULU – The Coast Guard, Kauai Fire Department and Kauai Ocean Safety Bureau are searching for a missing female swimmer off Kauai Thursday. 

Missing is a 32-year-old woman last seen wearing a blue bikini and hanging onto the rocks 100 yards west of Hanakapiai Beach before she was swept into the surf. 

Coast Guard Sector Honolulu command center watchstanders received a report at 3:20 p.m. Wednesday via Kauai Fire Department dispatchers from a bystander on the beach who saw the swimmer clinging to the rocks and struggling in the surf zone. The bystander reportedly attempted to rescue the woman by throwing a flotation device. 

Watchstanders issued an urgent marine information broadcast and directed the launch of an HC-130 Hercules airplane crew, an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew from Coast Guard Air Station Barbers Point and a 45-foot Response Boat-Medium crew from Coast Guard Station Kauai. 

Involved in the search are: 

  • Coast Guard Sector Honolulu 

  • Coast Guard Station Kauai 

  • Coast Guard Air Station Barbers Point 

  • Coast Guard Cutter William Hart (WPC 1134) 

  • Coast Guard Auxiliary Air Flotilla 10

  • Kauai Fire Department 

  • Kauai Ocean Safety Bureau 

  • Kauai Police Department 

  • Kauai Search and Rescue 

  • Life’s Bridges Hawaii 

Anyone with information that may assist in search efforts should contact the Coast Guard on VHF-FM channel 16 or call the Sector Honolulu command center at 808-842-2600. 

For more information follow us on Facebook, X, and Instagram. 

-USCG- 

hawaii sar PIW

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