Lost In Helo Accident During Heavy Weather

It's over -- the search for six people missing since Thursday when a US Coast Guard HH-60 Jayhawk went down in the Bering Sea near the Alaskan coast.

"There is little hope that any survivor will be found," said Rear Adm. James Olson, commander of the Coast Guard in Alaska.

Sources familiar with the effort to rescue crew members of the Malaysian freighter say the Jayhawk, which had already rescued 19 of the 26 crew members on board the stricken freighter, was slapped into the water by huge wave as it plucked the remaining crew members from the vessel.

Four people on board the helo -- three crew members and the captain of the Motor Vessel Selendang Ayu -- were plucked from the frigid seas by a helicopter from the USCG Cutter Alexander Healy, which was nearby as part of the rescue effort. The freighter subsequently ran aground in the Aleutians, not far from Dutch Harbor. The vessel broke in two upon the rocks, spilling thousands of gallons of bunker oil on the fragile shoreline.

The same weather that had hampered the attempt to get all crewmembers off the freighter are now causing problems with the effort to contain the spill.

FMI: www.uscg.gov