SAFE: An officer (right) dries off yesterday after making it to shore at Breezy Point in Queens when a Port Authority training vessel sank. (Theodore Parisienne)
So much for a drill.
A Port Authority boat carrying 10 cops suddenly sank off Breezy Point yesterday — in the midst of a water-rescue exercise.
Seven of the officers were already in the chilly, choppy seas training for their water-rescue certification when the 37-foot craft started sinking at 4:30 p.m., sources said.
One source said a few of the cops swam the 300 years to shore, navigating heavy currents in the 40-foot waters. Some of the other officers and two civilian trainers aboard scrambled to safety in rafts, while the rest were fished out by the FDNY Marine Unit, law-enforcement sources and witnesses said.
Two or three of those aboard were briefly hospitalized.
One PA source speculated that the Moose boat — which the agency bought in 2008 for $500,000 — might have hit a jetty. Witnesses said that once the boat started taking on water, it wasn’t long before it was completely submerged.
“I saw some of the guys trying to bail water out of the back of the boat, which looked unusual,” said Mark Egan, 53, who was sitting on the beach with his wife when they saw the boat go down around 4 p.m.
“It happened so quickly — the boat just went up on a 90-degree angle.”
Another witness, Robert Donnelly, said the officers threw a life raft out and started loading it with gear, then got in themselves.
“Most of the guys were moving to the front [of the sinking craft], and once the back of the boat hit the water, they all abandoned,” he said.
Witness Anne Brennan added, “By the time the first ambulance arrived, the boat was down already.”
A PA source said, “It just goes to show you how treacherous it is, but you have to go out there in those conditions to train.”
The PA will attempt to raise the boat today.