Story by U.S. Coast Guard,
8th District Public Affairs

NEW ORLEANS, LA - Barely a month passed when, on April 9, another family of five, the Perrins, was reported missing between Grand Isle and Venice, La.  When the Perrins’ overdue report came in to officials at Group New Orleans, it was eerie similarity to the family from Mobile.

Search and rescue controllers at Group New Orleans dispatched five rescue units to an area southwest of New Orleans.  Unlike the Krumm case, search planners had a more precise location.  The Perrins did file a float plan, so the Coast Guard inundated the area with boats, helicopters and a cutter.  The family’s friends also contributed to the search.

Several hours into the search, Coast Guard units hadn’t found anything related to the Perrin’s boat. Coasties who were involved in the Krumm case didn’t take long to assume the worst.  “We were starting to get frustrated because we had so many units in the area they were reportedly in; if they were on the surface or if something was on the surface, we should’ve found it,” said Petty Officer 2nd Class Brian Wear, a search and rescue controller with Group New Orleans.

Then Wear and his shipmates received word the Perrins were located.  A family friend found them, safe and all together. But they weren’t where their float plan stated.

One of the 41-foot rescue boats crews, who searched for the Perrin’s, met them shortly after they were located, to discuss what happened.  Kevin Perrin, the father and owner and operator of the boat, decided to change course because of severe weather forecasted for the area of Grand Isle and Venice, the boat crew said.  They added, Perrin failed to notify friends or family of the change, and the family took refuge in a bay southeast of Pilottown, La.

During the boat crew’s debrief of Perrin, they learned he didn’t have his marine radio on at all times while underway.  If Perrin had his radio on, he would have heard the Urgent Marine Information Broadcast (UMIB), about the search for this family, being disseminated throughout the airwaves.

In the end, the Perrins weren’t in any danger.  They had plenty of provisions for several days at sea, and were allowed to continue fishing.  But their friends back home in LaFitte, La., were notified of the change of location for fishing and expected time to return.  The Perrin’s close friends had their updated float plan.