A Canadian helicopter pilot and a Niagara Parks police officer were part of a dramatic rescue that pulled two American cops from a boat stranded at the brink of Horseshoe Falls on Saturday.
The vessel in distress, a New York State Police jetboat, got lost in heavy fog on the Niagara River while out on another rescue mission, officials said.
Blinded by the fog and unable to determine how close they were to the edge, the two U.S. officers threw the boat's anchor overboard and waited for help, police said.
"They could hear the falls, they could see the falls, they could smell the falls. It was a desperate situation for them," said Ruedi Hafen, the helicopter pilot called to U.S. waters for the rescue.
Hafen said the two officers were lucky the anchor caught or they could have been swept over the falls in under a minute. The boat was about 274 metres from the edge.
"If the anchor would have let go they would have had no chance. They would have gone over," he said.
The two officers went off course at about 4 a.m., shortly after rescuing four teenagers from a broken-down motorboat that was headed toward the falls, police said. The police boat was stranded in a place where the river picks up speed.
"They'd already gone through the first major rapids," Hafen said. "And from that point on, the river is really wild. They tried to get out with engine power … and they still went down the river."
"Such a little boat, such a big anchor. That saved their lives."
This wasn't the first time Hafen – a veteran pilot who owns Niagara Helicopters, a private company that does tours over the falls – was involved in a close-call rescue effort.
Hafen received a bronze medal for bravery in 2009 for using his skills to help save the life of a 30-year-old man who plunged over the Horseshoe Falls and resisted attempts to be rescued.
On Saturday, he was woken up at 6 a.m. by a call from Niagara Parks Police Const. John Gayder.
Gayder, coordinator of the police force's High Angle River Team, said Canadian officials were called in when attempts at a shore-based rescue proved impossible, and helicopters on the U.S. side of the border were grounded by fog.
"They were too far down into the grip of the rapids," he said. "There was no other means to rescue except by a helicopter."
"We work closely with (U.S. officials) and always have each other's back, so to speak," Gayder said.
Hafen set out shortly after 6 a.m. with Const. Shawn Black of Niagara Parks Police and engineer Ken Irvine, who acted as a spotter.
The rescuers used what is known as the "short haul" rescue lift, with Black suspended from a 33-metre line attached to the bottom of the chopper and Hafen lowering him onto the boat to strap in and carry off one officer at a time.
Hafen, who learned to fly in his native Switzerland, runs a free rescue training program twice a year for police and fire departments on both sides of the border. One of the stranded New York state officers had taken his training program, he said.
It took two trips to get them both safely to shore. By that time the fog had lifted and the officers, who were stuck on the stranded vessel for about 4.5 hours, had realized how close they were to the falls.
"They were snow white, like a bed sheet," said Hafen. "They were very shook up and they couldn't stop thanking us."
Located on the Canada-U.S. border, the Horseshoe Falls sends about 2.5 million litres of water over the edge every second and is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the world.
About 5,000 bodies have been recovered from below Niagara Falls since 1850, according to historian Paul Gromosiak.
New York State Park Police Sgt. Mark Van Wie called Saturday's rescue effort "seamless" and credited the success of the mission to the fact that officials on both sides of the border train together for situations like the events that unfolded on Saturday morning.
"We thank everybody that was involved," he said. "With any of these rescues, we lean on each other on both sides to get these things done."