Additional details from KCAW Raven Radio:
The Coast Guard is searching for a missing crewman from the fishing vessel “Swift.” The 34-foot boat is reportedly based in Juneau, but state records show it registered to a Sitka captain.
The Coast Guard received a call for help shortly after midnight Tuesday.
The 57-foot Pacific Horizon discovered the Swift in Icy Strait. Crew members found no one aboard, and notified Coast Guard Sector Juneau. The Coast Guard reported the Swift’s position at about 40 miles west of Juneau.
A helicopter crew from Coast Guard Air Station Sitka found one of the Swift’s two crewmen on a beach, near his overturned skiff. The other member of the crew remains missing. The Sitka helicopter, as well as a response boat from Juneau and the Coast Guard Cutter Liberty are aiding in the search. The Civil Air Patrol joined search and rescue efforts Tuesday morning.
The missing crewman is reportedly wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and black rain pants. Further details on the crewmen, including their names and ages, were not yet released by the Coast Guard.
National Weather Service meteorologist Geri Swanson says at the time the Coast Guard received the call for help, Icy Strait was experiencing 15-to-20-knot winds under cloudy skies. But earlier in the evening, the region experienced a series of moderate thunderstorms, including winds up to 37 knots. The National Weather Service issued storm warnings to mariners throughout the evening, urging them to find safe harbor.
Original story at June 18, 2013 6:20 a.m.
The Coast Guard was out searching this morning for a man who went overboard Monday night.
The unidentified deckhand, wearing only a gray sweatshirt and raingear, either jumped or fell into the water from the fishing vessel Swift after midnight Monday in Excursion Inlet.
The skipper of the boat chased after the crewman in a dinghy, but he could not find him.
The Coast Guard on Tuesday morning searched with H-60 helicopter from Sitka and a 45-foot boat from Station Juneau.
Petty Officer James Fangman of the Coast Guard Command Center in Juneau says the skipper, who was in an immersion suit, was medavacked to Bartlett Regional Hospital for treatment of mild hypothermia.
The vessel Swift is anchored up with no one on board.
