Search & Rescue

Rescue workers have abandoned their search for the source of an aircraft distress signal along the lower Yukon River in Southwest Alaska. Troopers said that no planes were reported overdue in the area.

The boater was traveling in an 18-foot skiff from Auke Bay to Hoonah and had made it around a third of the way when his bilge pump gave out.  

A Civil Air Patrol team from Bethel searched from Aug. 29–Sept. 1 but did not find any signs of a plane crash.

Clayton’s sister says they plan to look at surveillance footage at the Auke Bay ferry terminal to see if he got on a ferry to Sitka or another Southeast community.

Crew from the F/V Minke relayed that the 68-year-old captain of another boat, the F/V Lady Cyprus, was experiencing a possible heart attack. 

A chartered helicopter assisting the Ketchikan Volunteer Rescue Squad reportedly found 52-year-old Derek Kelley’s body near Grant Creek on Sunday afternoon.

The Coast Guard said the boat sank in 600 feet of water, but the crew was able to abandon ship in a skiff.

Two people escaped serious injury Saturday afternoon after their floatplane crashed during takeoff in the Misty Fjords National Monument.

Responders reached the crash site and recovered the bodies on Saturday afternoon.

Troopers have identified the two people killed as 23-year-old Anchorage resident Dakota Bauder and 27-year-old Hawaii resident McKenna Vierra.