© 2024 KUCB
Winter in Unalaska by Sam Zmolek
Your voice in the Aleutians.
Donate
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Local News
The KUCB Newsroom provides newscasts Monday through Thursday at noon and 5 PM on KUCB Radio. You can find many of our local news stories here.

Coast Guard medevacs man from floating fish processor near Unalaska

KUCB | By Hope McKenney
Published March 18, 2022 at 3:50 PM AKDT
A Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew deployed aboard Coast Guard Cutter Alex Haley hoisted the injured man from the 262-foot fish processor America’s Finest at 12:52 p.m. Thursday.
Courtesy U.S. Coast Guard
A Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew deployed aboard Coast Guard Cutter Alex Haley hoisted the injured man from the 262-foot fish processor America’s Finest at 12:52 p.m. Thursday.

The U.S. Coast Guard medevaced a man from a fish processing boat about 90 miles northwest of Unalaska Thursday, according to a USCG statement.

The helicopter crew aboard Coast Guard Cutter Alex Haley hoisted the injured man from the 262-foot fish processor America’s Finest just before 1 p.m. They flew to Unalaska where he was placed in the care of LifeMed personnel.

Watchstanders in the 17th Coast Guard District command center in Juneau received the initial medevac request from the catcher-processor at 2:30 a.m. Thursday, according to the statement. The boat’s master reported a crew member sustained serious injuries to his foot on the boat 20 miles west of St. George Island.

Command center personnel ordered the launch of the MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew while the processor made way south toward Unalaska. An HC-130 Hercules airplane crew also launched from Air Station Kodiak to provide additional support.

“So many people contributed to the success of this case,” Petty Officer First Class Jeffrey Dickey, a watchstander at the 17th District command center, said in a statement. “Thanks to the communication and continuous cooperation between America’s Finest, Alex Haley, command center personnel and the aircrews we were able to get this individual to a higher level of care.”

Weather at the time of the hoist included 30 mph winds gusting to 40 mph and 15 foot seas, with heavy freezing spray.
Industry
Hope McKenney
Hope McKenney is a public radio news director, reporter, producer and host based in the Aleutian Islands, Alaska.
See stories by Hope McKenney
Related Content
  • On Feb. 28 — 109 years after Benson was born — Anchorage Superior Court Judge Adolf Zeman ordered the State of Alaska to issue a corrected version of Benson’s birth certificate.
    Regional
    Historians correct details about Benny Benson’s heritage nearly a century after he designed Alaska’s flag
    Maggie Nelson
    Historians announced Thursday that they’ve uncovered evidence that key details about the teenager who designed Alaska’s state flag have been wrong for more than a century.Benny Benson, a Seward boarding school resident, won the state’s flag design contest in 1927. But he was a year older than previously thought, according to Michael iqyax̂ Livingston, who works for the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association’s community health services.“I've been working for several years with several other family tree researchers focused on Benny Benson's cultural heritage,” Livingston said. “And in the process of that research, we found what we believe were errors in his date of birth and his mother's maiden name.”
  • A U.S. Fish and Wildlife vehicle on Adak Island promoting rat eradication
    Science & Environment
    The Aleutians have a rat problem. Scientists are trying to solve it
    Theo Greenly
    For millions of years, birds lived nearly predator free in the Aleutian Islands. The volcanic archipelago stretches westward for 1,200 miles from the Alaska Peninsula, dotting a border between the North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea. Hundreds of bird species thrived here. But then came the rats. When a Japanese boat sank in the Western Aleutians around 1780, stowaway rats jumped ship and made it to one of the islands, wreaking havoc on the ecosystem.
  • Shown is the edge of the ice shelf in the southernmost navigable water from the crows nest of U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star on Feb. 17, 2022.
    Science & Environment
    Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star sets new world record, reaches southernmost navigable waters on the planet
    Hope McKenney
    The nation's only heavy icebreaker reached the southernmost navigable waters on the planet last month, setting a new world record. The nearly 400-foot U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker reached a position of 78 degrees, 44 minutes, 1.32 seconds south latitude off the coast of Antarctica. That’s about 500 yards from the edge of the Ross Ice Shelf, beating out the current Guinness World Record holder for the southernmost point reached by a ship, according to a USCG statement.
Load More