U.S. Coast Guard came to the rescue of Canadians stuck on ice

When a pair of Canadians got stranded on the ice on Lake St. Clair in southwestern Ontario on Tuesday, an American team with a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter ended up coming to their rescue.

U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Christina Silva says their team, the Dolphin helicopter team, got the call around 3:45 p.m., and the helicopter departed just after 4 p.m.

Flying to the scene and overhead, they sent a member of their team down to the ice via hoist, who lifted both men back to the helicopter one at a time.

"They were both talking to me pretty well. They knew exactly what was going on. They were just happy just to get picked up and get off that ice floe," said Edmund Bizorik, the team's "rescue swimmer" who went down to the ice.

There's no financial cost to the stuck men for the rescue, the team confirmed: "It's not like a one way relationship where the U.S. is only giving to Canada, it's a co-operation," said Lt. Connor Riley.

"So I think had this been a different scenario and there was a Canadian Coast Guard rescue asset near an American, I'm confident that there would be no difference."