Luki Akelkok, 28, of Dillingham and 28-year-old Stefan Weingarth of Anchorage were coming back from a hunting trip on Esther Island when they encountered bad weather, Troopers said. Akelkok is still missing as of Thursday evening.
Update as of 1:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 3: The U.S. Coast Guard ended its search Thursday night. Alaska Wildlife Troopers were monitoring weather conditions Friday afternoon and* planned to resume the search when weather improved, said an agency spokesman.
A Dillingham area man is missing, and an Anchorage resident is dead after their boat sank Wednesday night on Prince William Sound near Whittier, according to an Alaska State Troopers report.
Luki Akelkok, 28, of Dillingham and 28-year-old Stefan Weingarth of Anchorage were coming back from a hunting trip on Esther Island when they encountered bad weather, Troopers said.
Weingarth contacted another group in a separate boat before 6:00 p.m. to report that the bow of their vessel was underwater, that they were five minutes outside of Whittier and sinking.
According to the report, witnesses said seas were up to six feet tall with white caps at the peak of the waves and winds blowing at 40 knots. The U.S coast guard in Juneau and Anchorage were contacted and -immediately dispatched a vessel and aircraft from Valdez, but the bad weather slowed them down enroute to the scene.
Troopers said the coast guard found Weingarth’s body at 10:13 p.m. with a life jacket on, five miles northeast of Whittier, in Passage Canal near Trinity Point. The vessel was located, but Akelkok was not found.
The search was expanded to include Alaska Wildlife Troopers in Whittier, a Coast Guard cutter from Seward and a helicopter out of Kodiak.
But bad weather, including high winds, hampered search efforts Thursday and Friday. The U.S. Coast Guard ended its search Thursday night. Alaska Wildlife Troopers were monitoring weather conditions Friday afternoon and planned to resume the search when weather improved, said an agency spokesman.
Contact the author at tyler@kdlg.org or 907-842-2200