A 23-year-old crew man has reportedly fallen overboard from the oil products tanker ‘Challenge Prelude’, 126 miles south of Sand Point, Alaska, on Sunday. A US Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew and an HC-130 Hercules aircrew are searching for the missing sailor.
As informed, District 17 command center watchstanders received notification at about 1:25 p.m. from the master of the 587-foot ship, stating that they noticed a seaman was missing at approximately 11:45 a.m. The master reported he sounded a general emergency alarm and conducted a thorough search of the vessel. Then, he turned the Challenge Prelude around and followed his previous trackline in a bid to locate the crew man.
Watchstanders issued an urgent marine information broadcast and directed the launch of Air Station Kodiak aviation assets.
Weather on scene is 9-mph winds and 3-foot seas with 39 degrees water temperature.
Lt. Danny Piazza, a Coast Guard District 17 watchstander, said:
We are fully prepared and readily equipped to conduct search patterns and provide search and rescue efforts for this young man. Our primary concern is to locate him and get him out of the water and into the necessary higher medical care as quickly and efficiently as possible.
The USCG has suspended their search Monday, after spanning 673 square miles for a combined 14 hours. Capt. Darran McLenon, District 17 chief of response, stated:
The Coast Guard utilized various assets, while saturating the search area in hopes of finding the 22-year-old. Our deepest condolences go out to his family and friends.
