Search on for Missing Boaters in AK
The Coast Guard is searching for two men reported overdue from a boating trip near Ketchikan Sunday.
Coast Guard Air Station Sitka MH-60 Jayhawk crews and Coast Guard Station Ketchikan 45-foot Response Boat - Medium crews are conducting search patterns on the southern end of Gravina Island.
An Air Station Sitka MH-60 Jayhawk crew located a 16-foot skiff belonging to the missing capsized north of the intended route in Blank Inlet on Gravina Island at approximately 9:45 a.m. Sunday. The crew of the good Samaritan fishing vessel Storm Rage righted the skiff and is towing it back to Ketchikan.
Alaska State Troopers have activated the Ketchikan Volunteer Rescue Squad to assist with shoreline searches. The Coast Guard Cutter Maple is expected to arrive on scene Monday morning.
Watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Juneau received the overdue report from the fiancée of one of the two boaters at approximately 4 a.m. The missing departed from Mountain Point at approximately 12 a.m. Sunday and were expected to arrive to Cowboys Camp on Annette Island within 30 minutes.
"We are saturating a search area of about 200 miles that encompasses Nichols Passage and Tongass Narrows as well as the entrance to George and Carroll Inlets with two helicopter crews and two boatcrews to locate the two people missing," said Lt. Kailee Evereteze, command duty officer, Sector Juneau.
Weather on scene is 17 to 23-mph winds and 4-foot seas.