2 Jet Skiers rescued in Queens after being stuck and stranded in marshlands off of Broad Channel

A couple on a Jet Ski were riding the water vehicles when they got stuck in the marshlands off of Broad Channel in Queens. The NYPD and FDNY both dispatched boats to look for the pair, who were reported missing around 12:30 a.m. Tuesday morning and were finally located around 6:30 a.m.

BY ROCCO PARASCANDOLA , THOMAS TRACY 

 

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

 

Published: Tuesday, June 24, 2014

CHRISTINE M. FARRIELLANYPD and FDNY boats were dispatched to look for two men on Jet Skis, who were stuck and stranded in marshlands near Queens’ Cross Bay Bridge.

A couple on a Jet Ski were stuck and stranded in the marsh off of Broad Channel in Queens — surrounded by razor-sharp reeds — for nearly nine hours early Tuesday as cops and firefighters conducted a painstaking search for them, authorities said.

Juan Bueno and Nube Cajmarca-Cuji, both 26, cast off from the Broad Channel boat ramp near Beach 108th St. into Jamaica Bay at about 9 p.m. Monday night, officials said.

The couple were supposed to take a quick ride and come back, but when they didn’t return by 12:30 a.m., a friend who remained behind called 911.

The pair’s Jet Ski apparently broke down and drifted across Jamaica Bay into the back end of Big Egg Marsh, said NYPD Harbor Unit Police Officer George Delegianis, who took part in the rescue.

FDNY and NYPD first responders searched from Breezy Point to Five Towns for the wayward Jet Ski, said Delegianis. 

“At 6 a.m. the helicopter found them at the back end of Big End Marsh,” he said. “It’s real shallow over there ... they were maybe in about a foot of water.”

The Jet Ski was half sunk unto the muck and couldn’t move, Delegianis said. The couple had left their cellphones in their friend’s car, so they were unable to reach out to anyone, Delegianis said.

“Those reeds are pretty sharp,” Delegianis said about the spot where Bueno and Cajmarca-Cuji found themselves in. “The marsh reeds could cut you like a razor blade.”

When police found them, the couple were huddled together, bracing against the cold.

“They were happy, but they were shivering,” Delegianis said.

"They were shook up, but they didn't have any life-threatening injuries,” an FDNY source said. “It was a pretty long search.”

Paramedics took both to St. John’s Episcopal Hospital in the Rockaways to be checked out for hypothermia, authorities said.