United States (AP) — A US Coast Guard helicopter crew braved poor visibility and frigid rapids to reach a car partly submerged in water near the brink of Niagara Falls, then lowered a rescue swimmer on a hoist who pulled out the woman trapped inside.

She did not survive.

Video from the harrowing rescue attempt showed Petty Officer 2nd Class Derrian Duryea, in an orange suit and with an axe in his left hand, buffeted by winds and spraying water as he was lowered 80 feet (24 meters) to the car through falling snow.

“As I was coming down I was just really focused on how am I going to get in this car when there’s, you know, pretty much rapids coming over the car right next to Niagara Falls,” Duryea said by phone later. ”My sole focus was which window or door am I going in.”

“Luckily, the car was unlocked and I didn’t have to break out any windows and I was able to open up the passenger side door and push it up against the current,” he said.

About two minutes after entering the car, Duryea emerged from the water with the motionless driver, a woman in her 60s.

It was unclear how the car got into the Niagara River. Witnesses reported seeing it floating near a pedestrian bridge, where it was believed to have gone in. Roads in the area were slippery.

Authorities said the driver lived in the area. Her name was not released pending notification of her relatives.

New York Park Police Captain Christopher Rola said his department’s swift-water rescue teams were unable to get to the car because of its location. Police had used a drone to determine it was occupied.

He said investigators would try to determine whether the vehicle wound up in the water by accident or intentionally.

After the rescue, the car remained almost completely submerged, with only part of the roof and open trunk hatch visible, in the rapids upstream from the American Falls, one of three waterfalls that make up Niagara Falls. Onlookers watched as emergency crews prepared to try to pull the vehicle from the water.