The crew of Alaska Juris issued a distress alert to the Coast Guard and put on survival suits before leaving their ship at about 11:30 a.m. Alaska time near Kiska Island, about 690 miles (1,100 km) west of Dutch Harbor, Alaska, the U.S. Coast Guard said in a statement. When the Alaska Juris started taking on water Tuesday, crew members donned survival suits and got into rafts.
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Merchant vessels were in the process of rescuing 46 crew members who abandoned a sinking fishing vessel in Alaska’s Aleutian Island chain Tuesday, Coast Guard officials said.
A pair of good Samaritan cargo ships – the Spar Canis and Vienne Express – found crew floating along the Aleutian Islands although rescuers in a military plane and helicopter were still en route from Kodiak.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska Two ships brought 46 people to safety after they abandoned their sinking fishing boat and boarded life rafts off Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. The Alaska Juris is a 220-foot factory trawler that was reported 174 miles from Adak when it went down.
It wasn’t immediately known what caused the Alaska Juris to begin taking on water, and that will be part of the Coast Guard investigation, Steenson said.
Weather conditions during the rescue were calm seas and winds, although there was low visibility because of heavy fog.
So far there were no reports of injuries among the group, who sat in life rafts Tuesday evening awaiting aid, Petty Officer Jon-Paul Rios, based in the Coast Guard public affairs office in Juneau, told USA TODAY. Days later, another fisherman was treated for a head injury after a cable snapped again and hit him.
The crew of the Alaska Juris are being transported to Adak – a 13-hour journey from where they were rescued.
In May 2012, the Alaska Juris requested help from the Coast Guard after three crew members were exposed to ammonia from a leak.
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A Coast Guard Cutter Midgett and an Air Station Kodiak HC-130 Hercules airplane were diverted to the vessel’s location.
