Harbor Mountain Road, Gavan Hill Trail and thousands of surrounding acres of land are closed as the U.S. Coast Guard investigates why a helicopter crashed on Harbor Mountain during a training flight Monday, the U.S. Forest Service said Tuesday.
The four Coast Guard crew members who were aboard the helicopter were “safe, with non-serious injuries,” the Coast Guard said Monday after the four were taken by ambulance from the crash site to Mt. Edgecumbe Medical Center.
As an investigation into cause of the crash is underway, no timeline has been set for removal of the helicopter wreckage from Harbor Mountain, a USCG spokesperson said today.
Since Monday’s crash, a MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter and 12 crew members from Air Station Kodiak have arrived in Sitka “to maintain operational readiness in the Southeast Alaska region,” USCG public affairs officer Nathan Bishop said in an email to the Sentinel today.
Meanwhile, Bishop said, “the Coast Guard is prioritizing a thorough and complete investigation into the cause of the Harbor Mountain crash.”
Bishop said that once the site is cleared by investigators, the Coast Guard will execute a salvage plan for the helicopter.
After the crash on Monday, the Forest Service at the request of the USCG closed all of Harbor Mountain and Gavan Hill, and the surrounding areas, to all vehicular and pedestrian traffic.
On Tuesday, Forest Supervisor Janelle Crocker issued a public order stating that people are “prohibited to go into or be in the Harbor Mountain area which is closed or restricted for the protection of sensitive property.”
The order, which is posted on a gate of Harbor Mountain Road, includes a map showing the area that was closed to entry Tuesday and Wednesday, encompassing roughly 9 square miles.
It stated that violation of the order “is punishable as a class B misdemeanor by a fine of not more than $5,000 for individuals and $10,000 for organizations, or by imprisonment for not more than six months, or both.”
“The rationale for this emergency order is to protect military aircraft from the public until it can be recovered or all sensitive material removed from the aircraft and when it is safe for the public to use the area,” Crocker stated in a memo on Tuesday.
At press time today, the Forest Service was working on an updated order geared at reducing the size of the Harbor Mountain/Gavan Hill closure, a Forest Service official said.
