Page 9 - Sergeant Moriarty News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

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 point, at terrapin point, is over 180 feet straight down. if you go over in that partic...

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." and in the water, carella and moriarty know time is not on their side. >> at this time now, it's starting to get dark. gary and i were getting colder in the water because we'd been in there for a while. i know my hands were getting numb. i was getting c...

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, sarg, said i 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 point, at terrapin point, is over 180 feet straight down. if you go over in that particular spot, you're not going to...

>> we shook hands and looked each other in the eye and i think we understood, i'm there to save your life and you're there to save mine. >> as they're lowered into the water, they both have two ropes attached to their harnesses. one ties them to a small shrub on the shore, and the other is controlled by about 20 rescuers. they will use all of their strength to keep those men from getting swept over the falls. >> the water going at such a rate and then dropping at such a distance creates this tremendous thunder. you actually feel like you're in a small earthquake, and it's just an unsettling fe...

But spray is pelting him in the face. and so blindly he tosses the life ring into the teeth of the swirling wind. >> fortunately i got pretty close to him, and the current took it right across in front of his face, about two foot in front of him. >> now it's do or die for the man who has held on for so long. >> he's got it. >> he actually had to let go of what he was holding onto to get the ring. it was about a foot or two in front of him. he let go, and he grabbed the ring. we did see that his legs went right over the brink. >> on shore, rescuers start pulling the rope, plucking the man from ...