Yacht explosion hoax cost taxpayers $88K

Responding to a hoax distress call about a sinking yacht with 21 people aboard – including three dead -- cost taxpayers at least $88,000, a Coast Guard commander said today.

Planes and helicopters from as far away as Massachusetts responded to a real-sounding distress call Monday afternoon that purported to be from a yacht called “Blind Date.”

The audio from the hoax call was released today.

“We have three deceased and nine injured. We have had an explosion on board that’s why we are taking on water,” said a man claiming to be the yacht’s captain.

Except the man wasn’t radioing from 17 1/2 miles off shore as he claimed — he was probably making the call from somewhere on dry land, Coast Guard officials said.

“I’m in about 3 1/2 feet of water on the bridge right now. I’m going to stand by as long as I can before I have to bail,” the fake captain said.

“We have 21 souls on board, 20 in the water right now. I have three deceased on board, nine injured because of the explosion we have had. I’m in three feet of water on the bridge. I’m going to stay by the radio as long as I can before I have to go overboard.”

Helicopters were on the scene within an hour, and over 200 emergency responders were involved in the rescue effort, said Capt. Gregory P. Hitchen, Deputy Commander of Coast Guard Sector New York.

But Coast Guard searchers decided the call was fake “after we had helicopters on scene and they’d been actively searching,” Hitchen said.

“There was no indication of life rafts, a sunken vessel or a fire in what is normally a very highly trafficked part of the ocean,” he said.

Among the signs Coast Guard searchers looked for were: “An oil slick, smoke, life rafts, debris. Given the weather and the conditions last night it should have been easily seen from a helicopter.”

The $88,000 figure for the rescue’s cost is preliminary, and might rise, Hitchen said. NYPD helicopters and boats also participated in the search.

The Coast Guard is offering a $3,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the person who made the fake call.

The hoaxster could face five to ten years in prison, a $250,000 fine and reimbursement of costs to the government, the Coast Guard said.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Coast Guard Investigative Service at 646-872-5774 or 212-668-7048.