Page 17 - Sergeant Moriarty News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

But on this day, it's the force of men, not nature, that's the biggest miracle of all. an unbelievable rescue mission to save one man who has crept dangerously close to the edge of the falls. the call comes in on march 19th, 2003, 5:08 p.m. sergeant pat moriarty is on duty. he's a 19-year veteran of the niagara falls state park police. >> our radio man yelled down the hall and said, we just got a call from the canadians. there's a man on the ice at terrapin point. >> not a safe place to be. terrapin point is a piece of land that sits as close to the falls as you can get. >> the drop from that ...

>> fortunately plan "b" "arrive from the air. captain kevin caffery hovers above, trying to get a rescue basket close enough for the man to grab. >> we made four or five attempts to get him with the rescue basket. we got pretty close to him. the problem is with the treacherous air current, it was almost impossible to control the aircraft. >> at some point he said, i'm running out of power. we're not going to be able to do this. >> another failed attempt. the chopper returns to land. so the team can come up with plan "c." in the water, carella and moriarty know time is not on their side. >> at ...

>> as carella and moriarty watch their peers pull the guy to shore, the feeling of relief is short-lived. if standing feet from the edge of niagara falls isn't dangerous enough, almost unbelievably the stakes are about to go up even the man slips under that menacing ice shelf, the very thing moriarty feared most. >> upon being dragged underneath the ice floe, the danger level increased 100%. he now is on a rope that is unable to be pulled back because he goes underneath the ice. he's also being dragged by a current that is unbelievable because now it's pressurized. it's formed underneath the i...

>> when i saw the victim standing almost in waist deep water right at the brink of the falls, the hair on the back of my neck went up. >> moriarty immediately calls the fire department and the helicopter rescue unit. he also calls the power company upriver and asks them to use their dam to lower the water level. within minutes, niagara firefighter gary carella arrives on the scene. >> where the victim was standing is almost impossible to fathom. it is one of the most dangerous positions that a person can put themselves in. if i was a betting man, i would bet 99.9 times out of 100, that n(á$á...

And i'll tell you what, it was the quickest ever i thought i would go up an embankment. must have been the adrenaline on top because we slid out of there in a matter of seconds. >> and minutes later, sergeant moriarty is pulled to safety too. it's a chaotic scene, but now both on solid ground, the two men who just risked their lives to save another search for each other in the crowd. >> we shook hands, and we -- it was just an understanding that only people that do this can understand the feeling of gratitude and pride in the job we had just done. it was like, i can't believe we just did that....