Navy aircraft carrier joins in rescuing boater off North Carolina

The Coast Guard said it received a distress signal at 5:07 p.m. from the sailboat Gloria a Dios, off the North Carolina coast. The boat had been taking on water for three days as a result of storms, and its skipper, Dennis Clements, needed help, the Coast Guard said.

In coordination with the Navy, the Coast Guard said it identified the Eisenhower, which had left its Norfolk home port at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, as the best way to rescue Clements from the Atlantic Ocean about 280 miles east of Cape Hatteras.

"They needed someone there super quick," Navy Lt. John Supple, an assistant public affairs officer, said Sunday night from the ship. "We went pretty much as fast as we could go."

A Coast Guard airplane dropped a life raft near the sailboat about 9:30 p.m. after a large wave caused heavy damage.

(...) Kyle Need, a naval aircrewman, was lowered from the helicopter. He and the shipwrecked sailor were then lifted back into the helicopter for the flight to the Eisenhower.