BOSTON – “It’s an emergency! You need a chopper! You need a chopper out!”

With those urgent words, fishing boat captain Tony Alvernaz set off a futile Coast Guard search for five New Bedford scallopers, lost in the rolling seas off Nantucket.

But the 40-hour hunt for the Northern Edge and its crew was marked by brutal weather and major mechanical problems, including malfunctions in all four of the Coast Guard’s available helicopters. The problems left a three-hour gap in the middle of the night when no Coast Guard personnel were searching the scene.

In the end, Alvernaz and his crew on the Diane Marie saved the only survivor of the fast-sinking wreck, pulling a shirtless Pedro Furtado aboard after he clung to a life raft for a half hour early Monday evening.

Coast Guard officials said despite the problems, they were confident they’d done all they could in a uniquely difficult situation.

But the search and the difficulties it encountered highlight how multiple responsibilities have stretched the Coast Guard’s resources thin.

The jets used in the rescue operation need to be replaced and some Massachusetts-based cutters need to be updated or replaced, said Coast Guard Petty Officer Andrew Shinn, who added the agency is still getting its job done.

“I think the American people know we work with what we have, and we work hard,” he said.

Tammy Misiaszek, girlfriend of crew member Ray Richards, worried about the minutes lost during the search and called for more support for the Coast Guard.

“It’s the equipment, it’s the funds that are not there to keep this equipment updated,” she said. “If there’s anything that can be done. … This is something that keeps us alive.”

The first sign of problems on the Northern Edge came at 4:44 p.m. Monday when Coast Guard operators received an emergency distress signal from the boat, though they didn’t know its location.

At 5:08 p.m., Alvernaz called, identified the Northern Edge as the vessel in distress and gave coordinates, according to a radio transmission released by the Coast Guard, which also released a rough timeline of events.

“They disappeared, they disappeared,” Alvernaz said. “We need help out here fast!”

“Ma’am, all I see is flares,” he later said. “I lost the contact on radar! I lost the vessel. I lost the contact on radar. … Come as soon as possible with some lights. We need … some lights.”

After the operator asked about weather conditions, Alvernaz cut her off.

“Ma’am, they’re out here!” he said. “They’re out here! Ma’am. Let me let you go.”

At 5:21 p.m., Alvernaz reported the crew had picked up Furtado: “The guy’s delirious. … There’s definitely people. … They’re definitely down. People made it into the water. I don’t know if they had time. … I don’t know what to do.”

The operator soon informed Alvernaz, “OK, sir, I just wanted to let you know we have a helo en route, a helicopter en route, and we have some of our cutters en route at this time, also.”

But the first Jayhawk helicopter was forced to land because of a de-icing problem almost immediately after it took off from Air Station Cape Cod at 5:45 p.m.

The 1st Coast Guard District has four helicopters to cover the coast from Maine to New Jersey. Given the range of demands, it’s impractical to have more than one standing by for a search and rescue mission, Shinn said.

The Coast Guard immediately began to prepare a second helicopter in the 6-degree weather. Meanwhile, it launched a Falcon jet at 6:20 p.m. to spot any survivors and radio nearby fishing boats. The jet arrived on site at about 6:45, about a half hour after the first Jayhawk would likely have reached the area where the Northern Edge went down, Shinn said.

The second helicopter, carrying the same crew, took off at 6:38 p.m. and reached the scene a half hour later. It searched for more than three hours, hampered by a malfunctioning radio system, and returned to base at about 11:38 p.m.

The crew switched to a third helicopter, but it was grounded by a frozen fuel selector switch – which allows the chopper to draw gas from different tanks.

The same crew took the fourth helicopter up at about midnight, but was forced back by an engine problem. The exhausted, frustrated crew was relieved by a second crew, who eventually joined the search at about 3:10 a.m. – about two hours after the first cutters arrived at the scene at 1 a.m.

That left roughly a three hour gap when no Coast Guard personnel were at the accident site – between the second chopper’s departure between 9:30 and 10 p.m. and the cutters’ arrival.

“While certainly that’s frustrating, it’s not something we feel would have made a difference in this case,” Shinn said. He noted there were several fishing vessels on scene, none of which spotted survivors after Furtado was rescued.

Shinn said the problems with the helicopters were due to the extreme weather, rather than their age.

The district is hoping for upgrades as part of the federal Deepwater program, the Coast Guard’s multi-year modernization effort, Shinn said. While some of its cutters are new, there are plans in the works to overhaul the Jayhawk helicopters, update or replace some cutters and replace the Falcon jets.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the Coast Guard’s responsibilities have increased greatly and it’s been a battle to get proper funding, said Steven Schwadron, Chief of Staff for U.S. Rep. William Delahunt, who served in the Coast Guard. Recent years have seen increased funding for the agency, founded for search in rescue missions, but now involved in everything from coastal security, to the drug war, to breaking ice in frozen harbors, he said.

“On the other hand, demands are growing, as well,” Schwadron said.

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On the Web: http://www.uscgnewengland.com/external/index.cfm?cid778

AP-ES-12-23-04 2059EST