Offshore Wind Farms Accused Of Delaying US Coast Guard Sea Rescues
You call the Coast Guard for a medevac out on the water. You are told, “Ten minutes ETA,” provided its helicopter can “make way of the wind farm.” Huh?
That was the message on Marine Channel 16 on October 14, 2026, when the HOS Rocinante, an offshore wind construction vessel, requested an evacuation in the Sunrise Wind Farm.
The helicopter upon arrival at the scene took 12 minutes to descend to the vessel’s helipad. On a clear day.
Now imagine you, or a family member, on a boat without a helipad, in darkness, fog or storm.
Whether you are aboard a tugboat, sailboat, ferry, cruise ship or a plane forced into the water, you depend on the same rescuers.
But rescuers cannot become the next victims. Your emergency does not pause while they find a safe way to reach you.
Three developments in six weeks demand answers: the discovery of the F/V Mistress, which sank on New Year’s Day 2019; the October 3 Canadian air ambulance crash south of Nantucket; and the October 14 Sunrise Wind farm medevac.
The F/V Mistress was discovered last month 50 feet from Block Island Wind Farm’s (BIWF’s) Turbine 1. Two fishermen, Oscar Diaz and John Ansay Jr., died. They issued a Mayday.
Coast Guard records describe a helicopter forced to turn back.
But it wasn’t the high winds, poor visibility, and low clouds that forced the helicopter to abort the rescue. The “hazard” was the wind farm.
On October 3, 2026, the William Sparling, a “fast response” Coast Guard cutter, left New London around 1:30 a.m. to search for the HTT104 Canadian air ambulance, which disappeared from radar enroute to Boston.
But the cutter was forced to take the long way around the Revolution, Sunrise and Vineyard Wind offshore wind farms, an estimated six extra nautical miles, delaying its arrival by approximately 30 minutes.
The William Sparling search and HOS Rocinante medevac: two rescue operations, eleven days apart. How much rescue time was lost, and why? And what about the Block Island Wind Farm, did it play any role in Mistress’s sinking? How did the wind farm affect the chance of rescue?
The Washington Times reports that Ørsted began maintenance at Turbine One in April 2019, three months after the sinking. A 2020 Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) report recorded partial boat debris at the same turbine.
Who was notified? What did Ørsted know, and when did they know it?
Ørsted, majority owned by Denmark’s government, had a financial stake in federal approval of South Fork, Revolution Wind, and Sunrise Wind offshore wind farms. The Biden administration approved their construction plans in 2022, 2023 and 2024.
Was information about the wreck in 2019 withheld to keep those approvals, and the money, moving? Did protecting those offshore wind farms take precedence over protecting American lives?
Officials were warned: by Raytheon radar pioneer Dr. Eli Brookner in 2008, the Coast Guard in 2020 and the National Academy of Sciences in 2022, that offshore wind farms can obscure boats on radar, increase collision risks, and hamper search and rescue.
Green Oceans, the Rhode Island group that identified the wreck and reported finding human remains, called for a federal investigation last month.
The response from those in charge? Crickets. No word of an investigation, not into the Mistress, or the documented, delayed responses to Search and Rescue by offshore wind farms.
Then as if to rub salt in the wounds, this Sunday, October 25, the ARIES RAM XII, a jack-up maintenance barge, was seen working beside BIWF’s Turbine 1.
The Green Oceans report shows spud marks from a similar maintenance vessel on the seabed, feet from the Mistress’s hull.
Why is maintenance being allowed to continue? Shouldn’t someone be trying to retrieve the possible human remains of the fallen crew of the Mistress?
The families of the men aboard Mistress deserve answers. So does every family that could face the next emergency out on the water.
President Trump has led the fight against offshore wind. Now we need him to direct a coordinated federal investigation involving the departments of Homeland Security, Interior and Justice to protect the evidence and uncover the truth not only about the Mistress, but about past, present and future compromised search and rescue operations due to offshore wind.
For more information: Green Oceans’ findings here and here.
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Header image: Johanniter Offshore Rescue