Coast Guard tracks emergency beacon to partially submerged boat in Harris Harbor

A Coast Guard helicopter hovers over Harris Harbor on Thursday, Jan. 23, 2020, in Juneau, Alaska. (Photo by Mikko Wilson/KTOO)
A Coast Guard helicopter hovers over Harris Harbor on Thursday in Juneau. (Photo by Mikko Wilson/KTOO)

A Coast Guard helicopter circled over downtown Juneau on Thursday searching for an emergency beacon.

The beacon, also known as an EPIRB, or Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon, was unregistered meaning the Coast Guard had no way to determine who it belonged to.

A beacon is usually activated when a fishing boat sinks or a plane crashes, allowing rescuers to hone in on the last known location.

The helicopter eventually tracked the signal to a partially submerged boat in Harris Harbor.

Lt. j.g. Micheal Civay of Coast Guard Sector Juneau said they frequently chase down EPIRBs that are activated when boats are overloaded with snow or rain in the harbor. But, they also are tripped by planes landing hard at the airport or even people making dump runs.

“People will think an EPIRB is inert,” Civay said. So they’ll take it to the dump. Then, it will activate.

“It is pretty common,” Civay said. “We try (to) track these down. When owners register them, then it makes it a lot easy on us so we can contact them and follow up to make sure they’re safe.”

Two Coast Guard boats also participated in the search.

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