EDITOR’S NOTE: Here’s an inside look at a busy morning for a Coast Guard rescue team based at Air Station Sitka.
By LT. ROB MCCABE
AND CMDR. MATT BRECKEL
The morning of Tuesday, May 7, highlighted some of the challenging rescue conditions Air Station Sitka trains for. In an era of stringent safety requirements resulting in few maritime casualties, a Sitka-based Coast Guard MH60T Jayhawk is most likely to respond to a non-maritime medical evacuation from a Southeast Alaskan village or search for an overdue mariner delayed by weather.
While maritime rescues are less routine, Sitka aircrews regularly hone their nighttime hoisting skills to prepare for the most demanding rescues. And early Tuesday morning their training made a difference for six mariners.
Awakened by the SAR alarm at 2:48 a.m., the Coast Guard aircrew of four hustled to the helicopter on a report of a vessel aground on rocks a few miles from Cape Decision, 120 miles south of Sitka. Outside of Sitka Sound, they encountered zero visibility conditions. As Coast Guard helicopter 6025 raced along the coast of Baranof Island, the five person crew of fishing vessel MASONIC were donning survival suits and climbing into their life raft.
When 6025 arrived at the Spanish Islands, the distressed fishermen activated their strobe light to guide the helicopter crew to their raft’s precarious position, tied off to their beached vessel in breaking surf and surrounded by rocks. In the darkness and poor visual conditions, the pilots, LCDR David Birky and Lt. Sean Stadig, aided by night vision goggles, held a steady 80-foot-high hover while Flight Mechanic, AMT2 Josh Neel conned the aircraft into position.
With no delay, Rescue Swimmer AST2 Doug Niebaum was deployed to the water 150 feet from the raft so he could swim to the survivors without risk of the helicopter’s powerful rotor wash overturning the survival raft. Niebaum assisted each survivor one at a time from the raft to open water where the flight mechanic recovered them with the rescue basket before hoisting the swimmer back aboard.
Returning safely back to Sitka the MASONIC’s crewmen were evaluated and found to have no injuries.
A Coast Guard rescue swimmer is lowered into the water where the F/V Neto was taking on water in Fredrick Sound Tuesday. The boat was later towed to Petersburg. (Photo provided by U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Anacapa)
After their successful rescue mission the Coast Guard helicopter crew had just settled back into their beds, when once again the SAR alarm sounded, this time for a vessel taking on water in Frederick Sound.
The MH60T crew rapidly took off to assist, now in helicopter 6036. When visibility and clouds are low over Baranof Island helicopter crews typically fly north through Peril Strait or south around the island. Knowing every minute counted, the pilots elected to cut through Silver Bay to Blue Lake where a small cut in the mountains left a tunnel under the thick cloud ceiling, just big enough for the helicopter to cross the ridge and duck into Baranof Valley below. Further complicating the transit, a fog layer blanketed Chatham Strait and Frederick Sound, requiring a low transit between 150 and 300 feet above the water.
Once on scene, the rescue swimmer was deployed up-swell from fishing vessel NETO for a short swim to the sinking boat where he pulled himself aboard to evaluate the situation.
With the bow slowly going under water with just over one foot of freeboard remaining, the helicopter crew immediately lowered a dewatering pump to the stricken vessel. A sinking, dead-in-the-water vessel is unstable and susceptible to rotor wash, requiring a carefully choreographed hoist in which the flight mechanic lowers the hoist cable while simultaneously directing the pilot’s control inputs.
In this case, to minimize rotor wash on the sinking boat, a 105-foot trail line attached to a dewatering pump was delivered to the swimmer on deck and the pump was pushed into the water from the hovering helicopter allowing it to be pulled aboard. Coast Guard Cutter ANACAPA, homeported in Petersburg, arrived shortly after, took over the dewatering effort before towing the vessel safely back to port.
The owner of the MASONIC was taking steps to salvage the grounded vessel. The Coast Guard did a visual check and saw no signs of pollution.
In the course of only 4 hours, 2 vessels found themselves in peril but thanks to the quick action by the highly trained Coast Guard helicopter crew, six mariners and one of the two vessels in distress were saved. Such cases are rare in Southeast Alaska but Air Station Sitka remains poised for the worst and relies on a high training standard to make execution of these difficult cases seem routine.
