U.S. Airways pilot Brad Salzmann is recuperating and in good spirits after he was robbed and shot while on vacation in the Caribbeans Windward Islands in early October. Salzmann, 40, was shot twice during a charter that originated from The Moorings base in Grenada.
Salzmanns charter, originally intended for himself and four friends, became a solo trip when the crew opted out at the last minute. Salzmann, an experienced sailor who had chartered several times in the area, said he decided to go it alone, and departed from Grenada on October 3.
On the night of October 10, he was anchored off Tobago Cay when several men wearing ski masks and gloves boarded the 46-foot monohull, Salzmann said. The intruders robbed him of $500 and stole the boats radio equipment before shooting Salzmann twice, once in the arm and once in the chin, leaving him for dead.
Salzmann managed to make it to shore in his dinghy, where a local man helped him to another Moorings charter boat whose crew got him to Union Island. Within 31 hours, He was transported from Union Island to St. Vincent, then to his home town of Dallas, Texas, where he was hospitalized.
Besides the efforts of local citizens and law-enforcement officials from Union Island and St. Vincent, staff from the Moorings bases in the Caribbean and their headquarters in Clearwater, Florida, as well as Salzmanns family, worked around the clock to get him swift medical attention and transportation via chartered jet.
The incident hasn’t tainted Salzmann’s fondness for sailing, chartering, The Moorings, or the Grenadines. “These guys were a couple of bad eggs and certainly don’t represent the kindness of the local population,” he said. “I’d go back down there tomorrow if able.”
@tagbyline = Maggie Shuhy
