Salem MA boat spinning in circles, person injured – NBC Boston

A medical helicopter was called to Salem, Massachusetts, Sunday night for a person who was thrown from their boat.

Salem’s harbormaster confirmed one person was med fled following a boating incident, though few other details have been shared at this point.

Witnesses tell NBC10 Boston that they were at a campground area less than a mile away when the couple noticed a boat at Winter Island near Salem Harbor just spinning around in circles for quite a while before they realized no one was on the boat. Once authorities arrived, they had a feeling something bad happened.

“It looked like somebody was out there having some fun, just doing some donuts.” — that’s what Mary Roth and Tyler Warner were hoping until they zoomed in with their phone and started recording.

“There was no driver on the boat. It kind of caught me off guard,” Warner said. “I was like, we should call the harbormaster or something because this doesn’t seem right.”

They didn’t need to, however, as they quickly noticed police boats arriving in the area near Winter Island Park, trying to make contact with the boat that just kept going around in circles.

“Three attempts hitting the boat and the third one they were able to pull up next to it and the harbormaster himself was able to jump into the boat,” Warner said.

Roth and Warner still didn’t have answers as to what was going on. Neither did any of the others at the campground area until they heard the sounds of a medical helicopter.

There was no immediate update on the victim’s injuries or their condition.

Salem and environmental police were thoroughly inspecting the boat, which was docked at Salem Wharf with obvious signs of damage.

“It’s awful for the family of the person involved and just generally awful for everyone who witnessed this and was unsure of what was going on,” Roth said.

Salem police would not provide any details Sunday night but said this is a very active investigation.