Sailor missing for 66 days rescued off N.C. coast

WVEC-TV, Hampton-Norfolk, Va.

PORTSMOUTH, Va. -- A South Carolina man who had been reported missing for over two months was rescued Thursday after he was found 200 miles off the coast of North Carolina, the Coast Guard said.

The man, 37-year-old Louis Jordan, and the sailing vessel Angel were initially reported missing by his family to the Coast Guard on Jan. 29. He had sailed out of a marina in Conway, S.C., on Jan. 23.

"His family is driving up to Norfolk right now and excited to see him again," Coast Guard Lt. Krystyn Pecora said Thursday.

Pecora, who said details about how the man went missing are still unknown, said there was "no reason to question what happened, and we'll get more information when they can speak to him."

The Coast Guard received a message from the 1,085-foot, German-flagged ship Houston Express at around 1:30 p.m. The crew reported that they had spotted a man and a sailboat about 200 miles east of Cape Hatteras, N.C., and that they had taken him aboard.

A Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew launched from Air Station Elizabeth City, N.C., around 3:40 p.m.

The helicopter met the Houston Express, hoisted the man aboard and transported him to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital in Norfolk.