The U.S. Coast Guard said on Monday that it had suspended a search for five people who made a mayday call from a fishing boat off Alaska just after midnight on Sunday.
The Coast Guard spent almost a full day covering over 100 square nautical miles searching for the 50-foot fishing vessel, which was called Wind Walker, and its crew, according to a news release from the military branch. Search crews reported finding seven cold-water immersion suits and two strobe lights but no remnants of the boat or anyone onboard. The boat reportedly capsized near Couverden Point, Alaska, in the Icy Strait, according to the Coast Guard.
The crew said they were evacuating onto an emergency life raft during their mayday call, according to Travis Magee, assistant public affairs officer for the Coast Guard. Emergency marine responders who answered the call attempted to get more information from the crew but got no response, Mr. Magee said.
A nearby ferry vessel, AMHS Hubbard, heard the emergency call over a broadcast and arrived first to help. A helicopter and a boat were also deployed from the Coast Guard.
“We stand in sorrow and solidarity with the friends and family of the people we were not able to find over the past 24 hours,” Chief Warrant Officer James Koon, a search and rescue mission coordinator at Coast Guard Sector Southeast Alaska, said in a statement.
There were six-foot seas, heavy snow and winds of up to 60 miles per hour when the boat was lost, officials said. Alaska was under winter weather warnings over the weekend, and some have been extended through Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service.
The search was called off for now “pending the development of new information,” the Coast Guard said in a statement. The names of those missing have not been released.
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