A Coast Guard Air Station Sitka helicopter crew medevacked a man Saturday from near Biorka Island after he “potentially severed several fingers” aboard a fish processing vessel, the Coast Guard said.
The Coast Guard in Juneau received a report at 10:18 a.m. from a vessel in the area that the skipper of the Northwind had been injured. A helicopter crew on a training flight heard the request for help on VHF Channel 16, and flew to the area.
A good Samaritan crew on the F/V North River took the captain onto their vessel, and gave him a ride to shore, where the Coast Guard helicopter landed and picked up the patient. He was taken to the air station and picked up by an ambulance crew for further care at the hospital, the Coast Guard said.
“It was great timing for everybody involved,” Lt. Justin Neal, the co-pilot on the response, said in a news release. “We were maybe two minutes away and listening to channel 16 like we always do, somebody called out needing help and we were able to respond. ... It was great that everybody was willing to help, and do what was required to get this person to a higher level of care.”
On another call Saturday at 4:50 p.m., a helicopter was sent to look for a boat after communications were lost between the Coast Guard and the disabled 48-foot vessel Valkyria, near Duke Island in Clarence Strait.
About 10 minutes after the helicopter was dispatched, the Coast Guard received word at 5:24 p.m. that a good Samaritan vessel was towing the Valkyria into the nearest safe harbor, the agency said.
