The U.S. Coast Guard rescued four people trapped in a boat near the community of Chefornak over the weekend (April 12). No injuries have been reported.
The Coast Guard Arctic District received a request for assistance Saturday (April 11) afternoon from the Alaska State Troopers. The passengers — three adults and one child — were subsistence hunting for seal and had been trapped on an ice floe for over 24 hours, roughly ten miles from Chefornak.
The group was able to free their boat, but were unable to reach an on-shore party of snowmachiners due to moving ice.
A Coast Guard aircrew arrived via helicopter around 5:00 a.m. Sunday morning (April 12) and was able to lift all four passengers onto the aircraft. They were then transported back to Chefornak.
Lt. Cmdr. Alexis Chavarria-Aguilar, the helicopter's pilot, said in a release that it was “one of the most challenging missions any of us had ever flown,” citing near-zero visibility as well as icing conditions.
The rescue mission was aided by the three forms of communication the passengers had with them, which included a satellite device, according to a report from the Coast Guard.
