Blocked In By Sea Ice, Preparation Hastened Rescue

Alaska Army National Guard aviators operating out of Bethel, Alaska, along with local emergency personnel located and rescued four boaters stranded by sea ice near the town of Kotlik in the Lower Yukon Delta, who were able to get their position to rescuers who quickly found them.

A UH-60L Black Hawk helicopter of Company A, 1-168th General Support Aviation Battalion, was dispatched from Bethel after receiving a request for assistance from the Alaska State Troopers, routed through the Alaska Rescue Coordination Center at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson near Anchorage.

The boaters had been reported overdue in a remote area of the Lower Yukon Delta near Kotlik, about 160 miles northwest of Bethel.

The situation apparently developed when sea ice was blown against the shore, preventing the boat from getting out of where it had stopped.

CW3 Colten Bell, the pilot from Alaska Army National Guard said, “The wind had been blowing pretty good, and a lot of sea ice was actually pushed up against the shore. So it looked like they had stopped in there, and then the sea ice all blew in and then there's no way for them to get back out of where they were.”

The Black Hawk team from Bethel, two emergency service personnel from the Bethel Fire Department, and an Alaska State Trooper based in Emmonak participated in the search.

Bell said the boaters helped themselves to get found by being prepared. He said, “They had either given grid coordinates or sent grid coordinates, so we knew within about half a mile exactly where they were.

“And this is one of the main reasons why we always tell everybody to either have an inReach or that satellite service to where they can communicate. And the quicker we can get, like, exact grid coordinates or, like, a smaller search location, the easier and quicker we're able to get to people.”

Following their rescue, the boaters were transported to Kotlik, where none of them required medical attention.

FMI:  www.nationalguard.mil/