NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (KMID/KPEJ) – Two boaters were safely transported back to shore on Friday, March 22, with the help of a US Coast Guard rescue helicopter and two boat crews, after being stranded in the Lake Pontchartrain area.

The helicopter and boat crews were deployed after the Coast Guard and Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office were notified of the two overdue boaters who had set out on an 18-foot flat-bottom boat.

Footage release from the USCG shows the helicopter locating the distressed boaters using thermal imaging, before a rescue swimmer is winched down into the marshland to assist them. The swimmer can be seen guiding the two stranded boaters from their “disabled vessel” to a waiting rescue boat.

“The boaters were last reported to be in stable condition,” the US Coast Guard said.