[Bolduan:] The Coast Guard says it's called officers for missing boaters off the coast of California amid questions about whether the distress call was even real. CNN's Dan Simon reports.
[Dan Simon, Cnn Correspondent:] They sent out numerous boats and aircraft to rescue four people, including two children, allegedly on a sinking boat. This was the last radio transmission from the vessel operator.
[Unidentified Male:] Coast Guard, Coast Guard, we are abandoning ship. This is the Charm Blow. We are abandoning ship.
[Simon:] Is that the voice of a hoaxster? Was this whole thing a search that spanned the area the size of West Virginia and cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars just a prank? The Coast Guard says it's a possibility. First, the name of the boat, Charm Blow. Don Montoro is the Coast Guard sector commander responsible for the search.
[Don Montoro, U.s. Coast Guard:] We go through our databases, we went through customs databases. We also went through databases of local law-enforcement agencies to search for the vessel, and tried to identify it.
[Simon:] And what did you find?
[Montoro:] We unfortunately, we haven't found anything at this point.
[Simon:] And what about a missing persons report?
[Montoro:] We haven't received any notifications of any missing persons.
[Simon:] Is that unusual?
[Montoro:] I haven't experienced that before, so...
[Simon:] This isn't the first time the Coast Guard has turned up empty on a high-profile search for missing boaters. Last May, it searched for six people in the waters off Galveston, Texas, after a mayday call from a sinking boat. Then a few weeks later, a caller claimed there were three people dead and 20 people in the water off Sandy Hook, New Jersey.
[Unidentified Male:] We have 21 souls on board, 20 in the water right now. I have three deceased on board, nine injured because of the explosion we've had.
[Simon:] Authorities later determined the call came from the land and was a hoax. As for the radio transmission in California...
[Unidentified Male:] Coast Guard, Coast Guard, we are abandoning ship. This is the "Charm Blow." We are abandoning ship.
[Simon:] Based upon what he's saying over the radio, you thought that was real?
[Montoro:] Absolutely. And we treated it as such. We treat every call as it was our own child out there and we're searching for them.
[Simon:] Now, making a false distress call is a felony punishable by up to ten years in prison and a $250,000 fine, plus the cost of the wasted search effort. In this case, it would be hundreds of thousands of dollars Wolf and Kate.
[Bolduan:] As well they should get in trouble if they're wasting that time, if that turns out to be true. Dan Simon, great report. Thank you.
[Blitzer:] Probably seemed like a great idea to see the sights, hundreds of feet in the air in a balloon until disaster struck. Up next, we'll have new pictures of the deadly explosion and a closer look at balloon safety.