The Coast Guard has suspended its search for a motorized parasailor whom beachgoers said went down in the Gulf of Mexico off Redington Beach on Monday.
Searchers from multiple agencies began looking for the parasailor after Coast Guard Sector St. Petersburg station received a call at 5:20 p.m. saying a person gliding with a motorized parasail hit the water, bobbed for 10 minutes and disappeared.
Jeff and Tina Kareskie were on the beach when it happened, just about 5:30 p.m. Monday. They say at first they weren't even alarmed.
"He looked like he did it on purpose to me,” said Jeff Kareskie. “Like he was trying to land softly for some reason."
"We just thought he was going to come back up in the air,” Tina Kareskie said, "then it never came back up and it was floating and then it was just gone."
The Kareskies called 911.
"We treat every distress report as if it is an actual search-and-rescue case,” said Petty Officer 2nd Class Philip Lengyel, an operations specialist at the sector.
Coast Guard crews covered a search area of 270 square miles during 10 searches, authorities said.
While sonar equipment led teams to several spots in the water just off shore, there is still no sign of debris..
Paramotor expert and local instructor Alberto Monteiro was also called in to give law enforcement a better idea of what to look for.
"It's an extremely safe sport. I mean, even if the motor stops, we glide,” Monteiro said.
Except, Monteiro said, when the wind conditions are bad just like they were Monday.
"No one in the right mind, none of the pilots that I know, would have been flying yesterday,” he said.
Crews from Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater, Florida, Coast Guard Station Sand Key, Florida, Coast Guard Cutter Alligator, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Pinellas County Sheriff's Office and Indian Rocks Beach Marine units aided in the search.
As of Tuesday afternoon, all agencies have called off their search for the day.