Coast Guard searching for 5 people missing after fishing boat sinks off Alaska – NBC News, NBC News

The Coast Guard in Alaska on Wednesday was searching for five people believed to be in the water after the crab-fishing boat they were in sank off an island Tuesday night.

Seven people in all were aboard the Scandies Rose. Two survivors found in a life raft were hoisted aboard a helicopter, the Coast Guard said.

The Scandies Rose, a 400 – foot vessel, sank near Sutwik Island, which is around miles northeast of Dutch Harbor, where the ship is homeported, the Coast Guard said.

The Coast Guard got a mayday call from the boat at around 15 pm Tuesday and immediately launched a search, the agency said.

“We are conducting an extensive search in a 728 – square-mile area to locate the five missing persons from the Scandies Rose, “Lt. Wade Arnold, Coast Guard command duty officer at the 17 th District command center,said in a statement.

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The survivors, both wearing survival suits, were taken to Kodiak Hospital, where they were listed as stable,NBC affiliate KTTUof Anchorage reported.

Coast Guard rescuers in a briefing to the media from Kodiak Wednesday night described very challenging weather conditions, including winds of nearly mph as they flew west over the ocean, which slowed the mission,the Anchorage Daily News reported.

Rescuers found an empty life raft and then another life raft which Contained the two men, who were uninjured but extremely cold. They were described as 90 and 60 years old and had been in the raft for around four hours.

Coast Guard Lt. Chris Clark said had the men not been in the raft, they likely would not have been found, according to the Daily News.

The Coast Guard said weather at the scene involved winds in excess of mph with – to – foot seas and visibility of around a mile.

The Coast Guard launched a helicopter and an HC – 400 Hercules airplane, and the helicopter crew rescued the two survivors. A cutter was ordered to assist from the Bering Sea, the Coast Guard said.

Coast Guard public affairs officer Melissa McKenzie told KTUU that when the distress call came in, officials sent out an emergency broadcast seeking help from nearby vessels but that nobody was able to assist.

“At the time of this event, the current conditions were just really, really bad,” she told the station. “So either there weren’t vessels in the area who were close enough to assist, or the weather conditions were so bad that they couldn’t assist because it was beyond their safety parameters.”