Updated on 6-26-26 at 1:30 p.m.

Harbor Mountain Road is now open to pedestrian traffic, according to the U.S. Forest Service. But it remains closed to vehicles while the U.S. Coast Guard continues its investigation of the area where a helicopter from Air Station Sitka went down on Monday (6-22-26). Coast Guard and local emergency personnel told KCAW on Thursday (6-25-26) there’s no timeline for the investigation or salvage operation of the aircraft.

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Original post from 6-25-26

The scene of a Coast Guard helicopter crash in Sitka on Monday (6-22-26) remains closed until further notice. The U.S. Forest Service issued an updated closure order Thursday (6-25-26) for the area on Harbor Mountain, where a MH-60 Jayhawk carrying four crew from Air Station Sitka went down during a training exercise. The crew was transported to the local hospital with “non-serious injuries” and released the same day.

Sitka Fire Chief Brian McLaughlin said the crash occurred in a heavily wooded area that’s challenging for investigators to reach. The Fire Department is helping the Coast Guard safely access the site. 

“We provided some of our ropes team experts to head down with part of the Coast Guard investigation team to find a safe route down to the site, because they’re going to have several more days of getting down there and doing their investigation,” McLaughlin said. “Not to mention at some point there will likely be a salvage effort.”

McLaughlin said the investigation and subsequent salvage operation of the aircraft could take weeks. He said a majority of the area has reopened, but reminds the community to keep its distance as the Coast Guard continues its recovery and investigation efforts.

“I know everyone’s going to work as quickly and efficiently as they can to open everything up,” McLaughlin said. “But until that time, we just continue to ask for everyone’s patience and support, and kind of keep away from that area for their safety.”

In an email to KCAW, U.S. Coast Guard Public Affairs Officer Pam Manns said there’s currently no timeline for wrapping up the investigation.

“We extend our deepest gratitude to all the local responders who assisted us during this critical time,” Manns said.

Updated 6/22/26 at 4:20 p.m.

Four U.S. Coast Guard crew members involved in a helicopter crash in Sitka Monday morning have been reported safe with “non-serious injuries.” 

Watch standers at the Arctic District command center in Juneau received the initial report of the crash on Harbor Mountain through the activation of the aircrew’s personal locator beacon just after 10 a.m., according to a Coast Guard press release. The MH-60 Jayhawk went down during a training flight.

Rescue crews from Sitka Fire and Rescue arrived at the site of the crash around 11 a.m. and transported all four crew members to Mt. Edgecumbe Medical Center. 

“We are incredibly relieved our crew members survived with only minor injuries,” said Rear Adm. Bob Little, commander of the Coast Guard’s Arctic District, in the release. “We are grateful for the swift response by the Sitka Fire and Rescue who assisted us during this critical time.”

The cause of the crash is currently under investigation.

Harbor Mountain Road has been closed to vehicle and pedestrian traffic to accommodate the crash response, according to a press release from the City of Sitka. The public is asked to avoid the area until further notice.

This is a developing story. 

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Original Post, Updated 6/22/26 at 12:45 p.m.

A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter has reportedly crashed in Sitka. No deaths have been reported.

The MH-60 Jayhawk went down just after 10 a.m. Monday morning near Harbor Mountain during a training flight, according to a press release from the Coast Guard. Four crew members from Air Station Sitka were on board.  

Rescue crews from Sitka Fire and Rescue arrived at the site of the crash around 11 a.m. and transported all four crew members to Mt. Edgecumbe Medical Center.

In a post on X, the Coast Guard said it would investigate the cause of the crash.

“The safety, well-being, and rescue of our crew members is our absolute, immediate priority,” the post said. “A formal investigation will be conducted to determine the circumstances surrounding the event.”

Harbor Mountain Road has been closed to vehicle and pedestrian traffic to accommodate the crash response, according to a press release from the City of Sitka. The public is asked to avoid the area until further notice.

This is a developing story. 

On Sunday June 9, a mariner fouled his anchor in Herring Cove. Every time he tried to move the anchor, a little oil sheen and debris would pop up. 

“He called us to check and make sure that there wasn’t any known debris in the area, and to try to see if there was a known snag,” said Petty Officer First Class Heather Darce in an interview with KCAW. Darce is a marine science technician with the Coast Guard’s Marine Safety Detachment in Sitka.

“We were able to check local charts, [and] there was nothing down there that was charted,” Darce said.

Darce says the mariner then hired a local diver to help retrieve his anchor. In doing so, the diver discovered a sunken boat, an 80 foot wooden vessel, attached to a smaller boat. The boat’s sinking hadn’t been reported to the Coast Guard. But they were able to find its vessel number and name. 

“So the Dragon Lady is the last name that she held, but the boat was actually built in the ’40s and went through a bunch of different iterations,” Darce said.

The Coast Guard immediately hired a marine salvage crew to contain the oil and figure out if it was purging any more oil– and it wasn’t. So Darce says they began to research the boat to figure out where its fuel tanks might be so they could dive down and remove the fuel safely. They found the builder, Wheeler, in Brooklyn, New York, and requested diagrams of the boat. 

“They didn’t have anything that old, but they did go ahead and let us know that that hull number corresponded to a vessel that was built by them in 1943 for use by the United States Coast Guard,” Darce said.

“That sort of changed…things on a little bit of an emotional level for us, knowing that, as Coasties, that this was a Coast Guard Cutter.” 

Wheeler built over 230 patrol boats for the Coast Guard during World War 2. According to the Wheeler Yacht Company, 48 of them were at Omaha Beach on D-Day. Before the Dragon Lady got her name, Darce  said she was Coast Guard Cutter 83482. 

“The military was basically pumping out equipment to get it to the frontlines as fast as possible,” Darce said. “And none of the 238 cutters that were built by Wheeler during those years were actually named, they were given a hull number.”

Darce said they dove deeper into the history of the cutter, and discovered the vessel was delivered to Guam in 1943. 

“Her delivery would have taken place prior to the Battle of Guam, which happened in summer of 1944,” Darce said. “So she very well have maintained on that service during the Battle of Guam.”

After the War was over, Coast Guard Cutter 83482 was decommissioned and turned into a private craft. She was in Portland for a while, was used as a fishing vessel and brought to Alaska, sold again to become the Dragon Lady, a charter yacht, and eventually became a liveaboard toward the end of her life. 

It’s unclear exactly when the Dragon Lady sank- it had been anchored in Herring Cove for a while. Darce said they were able to contact the boat’s owner who wasn’t in the area when it began taking on water, but the owner has been cooperating with the Coast Guard. But salvaging the boat isn’t in the cards. 

“Even if somebody really wanted to bring up the Dragon Lady, she’s a wooden hulled vessel built in the ’40s. She’s been underwater for a significant period of time, and she’s 80 years old,” Darce said. “So even if for some reason we could not get to the tanks, in her case she’s not necessarily a good candidate even to try to move or roll, especially with her size.” 

Darce doesn’t believe there’s much fuel on the boat, but a dive team has been diligently working to remove any remaining fuel to prevent future environmental risk. Once they’ve emptied the vessel and sealed up vents, Darce said they’ll update charts to show Herring Cove as the resting place for the Dragon Lady.

The Awakin was a very typical charter boat for Sitka: 31-feet long, aluminum hull, twin 250-horsepower outboards, eight years old, and fully equipped with radar, radios, and other electronics for the kind of day fishing it was designed to do.

 This type of boat is common in Alaska’s charter industry. Called a “well deck,” it has a big central cabin, and tall sides that allow passengers to safely walk all around the perimeter of the boat when fishing.

While the well deck makes for great fishing, it proved to be a conspicuous liability in the tragedy that struck the Awakin on May 28, 2023,  at exactly 2:43 in the afternoon.

“We determined, based on all the evidence before us and an analysis, that the initiating event of the Awakin’s casualty was a sudden flooding of Awakin’s  well deck by a large swell,” said Cmdr. Nate Menefee, who led the Coast Guard’s investigative team.

He told the standing-room only crowd in Harrigan Centennial Hall that the Coast Guard’s forensics lab was able to recover the data from the laptop on board the Awakin used for navigation. Investigators could determine position, speed, and depth of the water under the Awakin from the moment it departed Sitka’s Crescent Harbor at 6 a.m. until the moment it stopped recording at 2:43 p.m., when the Awakin was on a slow drift south of Low Island, its passengers jigging for rockfish at the end of a long day of trolling for salmon and halibut fishing.

The Coast Guard Investigative Team began its Casualty Report with a solemn recognition of those who lost their lives in the incident on May 28, 2023:

Morgan Robidou, 32, master;

Brandi Tyau, 56, and her partner Robert Solis, 61, of Canoga Park, California;

Danielle Agcaoili, 53, and her husband Maury Agcaolli, 57, of Waipahu, Hawaii.

On a good day, the shore of Low Island can be treacherous. The bottom is irregular – formed by lava from the Mt. Edgecumbe volcano thousands of years ago – and ocean swells can suddenly heave and break, especially at low tide.

Menefee said the Awakin, its captain busy assisting clients, was likely taken by surprise by a breaking swell that first flooded the boat, and then rolled it.

“The loss of vessel control may have prevented the master from making a radio distress call,” he said. “The loss of control could have been due to electrical or mechanical issues, or the chaotic situation that would likely ensue following the swamping of the vessel’s well deck.”

The Awakin’s owner and captain, Morgan Robidou, was young and in his first season operating a charter boat, but he knew his business. He grew up in Sitka and had logged over 800 service days on the ocean toward earning his 50-ton masters license. Also, he had taken this same route 19 times in just the previous five days.

Safety aboard a charter boat – officially called an uninspected passenger vessel, and unofficially known as a six-pack – is heavily dependent on the master. The Awakin was well-equipped with safety gear, including two “digital selective calling” radios that would have sent an SOS and the boat’s position, if only someone had known to push the button. (And if someone had received it. The DSC system, called the “Alaska 21 Rescue System” is relatively new and has “reliability issues. On May 28, 2023, there was no DSC coverage in Sitka Sound from a Coast Guard shore station, although a message could have been relayed – had one been sent).

Unfortunately,  Robidou himself was likely among the first two swept overboard.

“it’s very probable that anybody standing on the back of the well deck may have gone overboard including the master,” said Menefee.

With no captain and no other boats nearby, the remaining passengers on the Awakin were in dire straits. Uninspected passenger vessels in the US are not required to carry a life raft or an EPIRB (Emergency Position-Indicating Radio Beacon), a device which automatically releases from a submerged boat and sends an emergency signal. The investigators say this type of hull – again a well deck – lacks adequate drainage if a lot of water suddenly floods over its tall bulwarks. Once swamped, it did not take much for the boat to roll and capsize. In perhaps the most tragic detail of the investigation, a passenger remained alive in the submerged cabin of the Awakin for at least a half-hour and sent several texts asking the recipient to call 9-1-1. Then the person, known as Passenger One, tried calling Sitka Dispatch.

Prerecorded voice of slide narrator: “There were five outgoing calls to 911 on passenger one’s phone made between 15:01 and 15:12. Data showed all five attempts to call 911 as not answered.”

The Sitka Dispatch records show no calls were received during that time. Although there is spotty cell service in Sitka Sound, investigators believe that it was impossible for Passenger One to obtain a signal while trapped in a submerged aluminum boat.

Factors which the Team concluded played no role in the loss of the Awakin or its passengers:

— Although one full and one partially-full bottle of rum were found on board, Morgan Robidou’s blood alcohol level was consistent with the natural post-mortem process between his death on May 28 and his autopsy on June 9, and not from consumption of alcohol. Charter guests often gave Robidou bottles of “Captain Morgan”-brand rum as gifts.

— Awakin’s anchor was found fouled on the bottom near Low island, but investigators concluded that it slipped from the bow roller after the boat capsized.

— Flare sightings reported in Sitka Sound during the search were not related to the incident. The Awakin’s flare kit was recovered intact and unopened.

— Although winds were expected to increase offshore to small-craft level later in the afternoon of May 28, they were not yet high at the time of the incident. The Awakin was under control until the moment it was lost.

— Discrepancies at Low Island between raster charts and the Time Zero vector charts in use on the Awakin’s navigation laptop (although the Team notified Time Zero of this issue).

.

The Awakin was due back in port at 4 p.m. When it failed to arrive, fellow charter operators began calling the Awakin on VHF radio. Others began looking, and at least one boat went all the way out to Cape Edgecumbe following the Awakin’s usual route. It wasn’t until almost 5:30 p.m. that the owner of Kingfisher Lodge notified the Coast Guard of an overdue vessel. Typically, once the Coast Guard decides to initiate a search, a helicopter can be airborne in a half-hour. On May 28, a half-fueled helicopter was ready at Air Station Sitka, but the pilot, expecting a long search flight, ordered a full tank. The pit crew encountered some problems, however, and it was 58 minutes before the helicopter took off.

Air Station Sitka commander Cpt. Vincent Jansen supported his pilot’s decision, although looking back it was clear that the fueling issues weighed heavily on him.

“I’ve been flying for 20 years, the fuel tanks and the fuel pit we have right here in Sitka is the best I’ve ever seen,” said Jansen. “And it’s also the most well-maintained. We had two malfunctions that day with that fueling system. It’s Murphy’s Law. Everything else was by the book but it couldn’t happen at a worst time. And I own that.” 

The 58-minute delay likely didn’t matter. By the time the Coast Guard was notified that the Awakin was overdue, the five people aboard had been in the water two-and-a-half hours without floatation, or trapped in the sunken vessel’s cabin, and almost certainly no longer alive.

The investigators made a handful of recommendations to the Coast Guard Commandant to prevent similar tragedies, including requiring uninspected passenger vessels to carry life rafts and EPIRBS – much like the commercial fishing fleet – and to have significantly more drainage on deck. It’s not clear whether anything will change, however. As Menefee said, regarding the life rafts and EPIRBs, “We’ve made these recommendations before.”

Usually, looking back on the year’s top news stories involves recalling a lot of not-so-good things that may have happened. In Sitka, however, the list of 2023’s positives is probably a bit longer than the list of negatives. And while our hearts go out to our neighbors in Wrangell who are still reeling from tragedy there, Sitkans showed a strong capacity for working together in 2023, that makes us optimistic for ‘24.

Cruise Tourism

This is Tumbleweed Stew, a band of rag tag buskers frequented Lincoln Street for a few weeks this summer, playing bluegrass and an instrument called a gut bucket.

Many of our stories on Raven News this year were like “tumbleweeds.” You think you know what direction the story is heading as it blows down the street, but then it takes an unexpected turn. Cruise tourism might be one of those tumbleweeds – a really, really huge tumbleweed. And for a while this fall, it looked like we were headed for a showdown over passenger numbers. 

Not everyone was happy about the increased traffic, safety issues, and overcrowding that came with the rapid growth in cruise ship arrivals. Larry Edwards and a group of around 40 other Sitkans filed two citizen petitions to cap next summer’s cruise passenger counts at 240,000 people. 

“There have been a number of surveys done that have shown that about two-thirds of people in town think it’s way over the top, and has been for quite a while. It’s been controversial since the 1990s. And nobody’s really ever asked…the people of the city of Sitka what they want, and asked them to vote on some number. This is the first, and someone had to stick their neck out to do it.”

Larry Edwards on his petition to cap the number of cruise passengers visiting Sitka in 2024

Edwards tried twice to get his petition on the ballot, but it didn’t pass legal muster in city hall either time. If it had, we may have had a special election this winter.

The final count is in, and Sitka hit around 585,000 cruise passengers in 2023 – with about the same numbers expected next year. Is this our new normal? Maybe not, because something unexpected happened. After previously saying he wouldn’t turn any ships away, Sitka Sound Cruise Terminal owner Chris McGraw announced that he’s developing a berthing plan to set his own limits.  

“Let’s go get our numbers and see if we can slow everything down a little bit. But then also work to catch up our infrastructure, catch up our tours, so that we can meet the demand that that we’d like to see and that is ultimately healthy, in my opinion, for the community.” 

Cruise dock owner Chris McGraw, on developing his own berthing plan to curb traffic in 2025

KCAW will be chasing a lot of smaller tourism tumbleweeds, too in 2024: Sitka’s sales tax revenue is up dramatically, and there’s no clear plan yet on how best to spend it. Sitka’s food truck scene is growing all the time, and business startups are entering the tourism market, almost weekly, it seems.

Trolling and the WFC Lawsuit

While tourism was booming this summer, salmon trollers were singing an entirely different tune. The July 1 troll season almost did not happen. Just a few days before the summer opener, on June 21, the 9th Circuit Court stayed a lower court ruling, and allowed the season to open. The stay bought time for the National Marine Fisheries Service – the actual defendant in the lawsuit – to revisit the relationship between salmon trolling in Alaska and an endangered population of killer whales in Puget Sound in Washington state which preys on king salmon. Given how much fishing goes on all up and down the Pacific Northwest Coast, Southeast trollers felt unfairly targeted. 

“Anyone claiming that Southern Resident killer whales are starving because Alaska trollers were taking food from the mouths of their babies would be laughed out of court. That’s what we thought. Yet a judge is recommending that the historic Southeast Alaska troll fishery, which for 100 years has never closed, will shut down this winter. If that happens, the industry will die and so will a large part of Southeast Alaska’s economy.”

Alaska Trollers Association President Matt Donohoe addressing the Sitka Assembly

It was touch-and-go for the troll fleet this season. King salmon and coho prices were in their usual range. But the bottom fell out of the chum market, after three great years, and that was a big hit for the fleet. But trollers don’t troll because they like routine.

“Every year the fish – it’s exactly the same and nothing alike. You’re in the water, you’re dragging hooks. But are they going to hit the herring this year? Or is it going to be this spoon? Or is it gonna be the spoon that you have buried in there that worked 10 years ago that might work now? It’s about the puzzle. And it’s about the fact that our entire year really starts July 1. That’s our New Year: our whole life is centered around that July 1 opener.”

Jacquie Foss in KCAW’s three-part series on trolling

Home Health

Besides trolling, Sitkans were worried about another big closure in 2023. Earlier this year, the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium unexpectedly announced they’d be closing their Home Health department, which provides Sitkans with occupational and physical therapy, as well as some end-of-life care in the home. 

This touched a big nerve in Sitka. SEARHC’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Elliot Bruhl told KCAW that it was an administrative change, and they would continue to provide patients with the same services. 

“So our intention is not to abandon that care, abandon patients or leave patients who need that type of care without access to those services, it’s just we’re not going to provide it through this department.”

Dr. Elliot Bruhl on the future of home health services in Sitka

But this explanation was a tough sell for some. The Sitka Women’s Club held a town hall on the issue, and most participants still had questions, retired physician Marilyn Coruzzi was one of them.

“How can it be the same, if we hear one nurse is available where we had three? How is it going to be the same without much more support and commitment by SEARHC? How is it going to be the same? Give me the details. If somebody’s dying at home, who is going to pronounce the patient, who is going to do the doctor’s orders for pain management?”

Retired Dr. Marilyn Coruzzi at a recent home health town hall

Dr. Bruhl recently appeared before the Sitka Assembly to reassure everyone that patients were receiving the same level of care, but there was still more pushback from several current and former healthcare professionals who doubt this is the case. So where this tumbleweed is rolling is to be determined.

A home for unhoused teens

Same for Sitka’s other big “home health” issue in 2023: Where to locate a residential treatment center for at-risk teens from across the state. Youth Advocates of Sitka received a $2 million federal grant to open a facility, but there was significant neighborhood opposition to a couple of proposed locations.

“I get why people are nervous. There are a lot of unknowns welcoming something like this into your own backyard so to speak. These kids, these young people have been through more than we understand, and it wasn’t their fault. The only hope they have of having a healthy, normal life, is to be in a regular neighborhood and feel like regular people, and learn what healthy is, and what it looks like, and what they could have.”

Wendy Leverett advocating for a YAS teen treatment center

In a rare move, the assembly overruled the Planning Commission, and allowed the project to move forward at a duplex on Halibut Point Road, although two neighbors have since filed a lawsuit to block the purchase. 

Four survive Coast Guard helicopter crash

Chances are, when a helicopter from Air Station Sitka takes off it’s a training flight, but it could also be a medevac to town without an airport, or a search and rescue mission, like it was the night of November 13, when a crew from Air Station Sitka took off in rough weather for Frederick Sound to respond to a sinking fishing boat. But things didn’t go as planned. Logan Padgett was one of the fishermen they were helping that night.

“Well, it was it was dark. So we were just looking at the helicopter lights and there wasn’t really much to see. But we could hear the rotors one second, and then loud crash the next. Then silence…” 

Logan Padgett, skipper of the Lydia Marie

Padgett and his brother, Levi, were anchored behind Read Island, and out of danger. They turned on the boat’s crab lights and saw the helicopter upside down in the woods just off the beach. Logan and Levi rowed ashore and assisted the four surviving crew all night until more help arrived. “It’s just people helping people at that point,” he told KCAW.

Sitka’s ‘Homeward Bound’ story: Stella

Some situations – especially in Alaska – quickly become about survival. This year, one of Sitka’s ultimate survivors was Stella. Stella is probably equal parts survivor and miracle. She’s a 13-year old golden retriever who was spooked by fireworks last summer, and went missing for 65 days.

“He said, do you have a golden retriever? And Jerome said, Well, we did have a golden retriever. And he says, Well, I think this is your golden retriever. She was on this cliff side and it was basically this ash and rock that was the same exact color as her. She totally blended in. The fact that Tim saw her – I just kept saying to him, how did you see her?”

Sara Mahoskey on finding their golden retriever Stella after she disappeared for 65 days

Long scars across Stella’s belly pointed to a run-in with a bear. And it wasn’t her first close call. Stella was in the cab of her dad’s truck in 2015 when it was crushed in the Kramer Avenue landslide. She was safely rescued both times, and happy to be the tumbleweed who tumbled home again.

Unexpected visitors and ‘whale soup’

While reports of gray whale strandings along the Pacific coast have jumped since 2019, there’s at least one place where these whales seem to be thriving. Hundreds of gray whales migrating from Mexico to their Arctic feeding grounds are stopping in Sitka along their route. 

“If people have been seeing them, they’re seeing whales rolling around and playing with each other. They’re seeing a lot of feeding behavior, a lot of social behavior. Some people are seeing what looks like mating behavior.”

Dr. Lauren Wild on Sitka’s gray whale visitors

We don’t know what will happen in the future with these new visitors, or what the implications are for the West-Coast gray whale population as a whole, but for now, it seems that this struggling population has found a haven in Sitka feeding, socializing, and even mating, as sail boat captain Blain Anderson observed. 

“It was all supposed to happen down to Mexico, but it does seem like they’re continuing their frisky ways up in – as we call it – romantic Sitka Sound.”

Not exactly a tumbleweed, but some tumbling to be sure.

Other notable stories from Sitka’s news in 2023:
Sitka Judge Jude Pate becomes 27th Alaska Supreme Court Justice
Kale yeah! Sitka Chef Renee Trafton named James Beard Award semifinalist
Coast Guard suspends search for remaining victims of charter boat accident
FedEx staffing shortage in Sitka led to delayed shipments of everything from pet food to meds and vaccines 
A conversation with Alaska’s exorcist
Tribe says Sitka Seawalk a threat to ancient mariculture
In paint and words, ‘The Squirrel and Bear’ exhibit is a portrait of one couple’s artistic legacy
Sitka Rocket Wolves soared to new heights, nabbing first E-sports state title
More bust than bonanza, Sitka’s 10,000-passenger day was ‘far too many’ says mayor
Moments before his trial on sexual assault charges, a former Sitka doctor takes a plea deal
Sitka Fine Arts Camp at 50: For many kids ‘the only place’ that is truly theirs

A Coast Guard helicopter crew from Air Station Sitka rescued two teenage hikers from Mt. Verstovia on Saturday (5-6-23) afternoon.

The teens, ages 14 and 15, called 911 shortly before 4:30 p.m. after they found themselves lost off the trail. They were at around 1900 feet in elevation. Sitka Mountain Rescue then called for Coast Guard assistance. 

Petty Officer 3rd Class Ian Gray says two things made the rescue pretty straightforward. The first, the hikers had their cell phones on them, and that helped the crew locate them quickly.

“They got off the trail, they realized that they were in trouble and distress, that they couldn’t find their way back to the trail,” Gray says. “And they did a great job by calling 911 and letting them know exactly what was going on.”

The second thing that helped simplify the rescue mission? Clear skies, which is often not the case in Southeast Alaska.

“A lot of times, you know, the weather is not great for cases that we go out on,” Gray says. “This was this was different in that we could see them immediately and hover in place and safely rescue the two teenagers.”

It took the Coast Guard crew around 25 minutes to locate the lost hikers and bring them back to safety and awaiting family members at the air station. No injuries were reported. 

According to a release from the Sitka Fire Department, those good Samaritan vessels were work skiffs from the nearby Medvejie Hatchery. They helped the 10 passengers evacuate the vessel, ferrying them back to the hatchery dock.

The crew members remained on board and fought the fire with extinguishers, closing off the engine room to isolate the fire. They managed to snuff out the blaze before emergency crews arrived. Once firefighters arrived and ensured the fuel and power on the boat was secured, they stayed on board to monitor for any sign of rekindling.

The Yukon Queen was towed to the nearby industrial park dock, where emergency responders continued to investigate the scene. One crew member was treated and released for possible smoke inhalation– no other injuries were reported. 

The cause of the fire remains under investigation. The Yukon Queen is owned by local tour company Adventure Sitka. The fire damage is estimated at around $500,000. 

UPDATE Tuesday, January 7, 2020: This search was suspended on Monday evening, January 6.

Original Report:

An intensive air and water search is underway in Sitka for a missing kayaker.

The US Coast Guard and Sitka Mountain Rescue have been combing the shoreline and islands of Sitka Sound looking for 36-year old Kale Pastel, who was reported missing on Sunday morning (1-5-19). 

Pastel departed in his kayak from the UAS-Sitka campus area at 4:30 a.m., headed to Birdsnest Bay, near Camp Coogan Bay. He was reported overdue shortly after 10 a.m. 

Pastel’s kayak was spotted by a Coast Guard crew at 1:15 p.m. on Cannon Island. A good Samaritan had located the kayak earlier that morning overturned and adrift in Eastern Channel, and towed it to shore. 

Eric Matthes is the deputy captain and technical team leader with Sitka Mountain Rescue. He says the team searched by boat and helicopter throughout Sunday afternoon, but had to scale back the efforts when the sun set. 

“The focus for our searching is really only effective for daylight hours for this particular kind of search,” he says. “The Coast Guard searched after a while after dark yesterday. The field operations for our end were suspended overnight.” 

Matthes says they made plans for daybreak today (Monday 1-6-19), with somewhere between 20 and 40 volunteers aiding in the search. The Coast Guard Cutter Bailey Barco arrived from Ketchikan this morning, and Sitka Coast Guard crews continue to search by helicopter and boat.

Mariners in distress are without a decades-old means of contacting the Coast Guard in much of coastal Alaska. The federal search and rescue agency says its VHF signal is down, making communication on Channel 16 unreliable. The issue had been going on all summer and there’s no solution in sight.

As Sitka fishermen go, Matt Donohoe is somewhat of a veteran. This summer he was trolling for salmon when he heard a distress call over his VHF radio.

“A boat called mayday, but it was on Channel 16, and I expected the Coast Guard to respond and they didn’t,” he says.

It turns out it wasn’t too serious — the skipper had broken down and was drifting. Donohoe continued to try and reach the Coast Guard over his radio as well with little luck. He was relieved that nobody’s lives were at risk that day.

“But there’s a problem with the infrastructure and it needs to be addressed before somebody dies,” he says.

His story isn’t unique. In fact, fishermen across Southeast Alaska have been reporting similar problems. The Coast Guard first publicly acknowledged the problem last month, but it broadcasting automated notices this summer to mariners. Guys like Joe Donohue who troll around Sitka.

“I wrote down where the outages were and it was from Yakutat all the way down to Cape Edgecumbe,” Donohue says. “I had a bunch of friends that were just finishing up with seining, were getting ready to go longlining, and I thought ‘boy I hope they get that fixed’.”

It hasn’t been fixed. At least eight Coast Guard towers are down in Alaska. The outages are affecting Prince William Sound all the way down to Sitka and other Southeast communities.

Some of these repeaters have been completely down since June. 

Coast Guard Lt. Scott McCann says repairing these remote towers isn’t a simple task. 

“In most cases these towers are only accessible by helicopter. And in that case, the helicopter can only fly when the weather is conducive to flying up to the top of the mountain and dropping off personnel and parts,” he says.

But this is the Coast Guard, isn’t flying helicopters in remote stormy conditions what they do?

“True, the Coast Guard has a reputation for flying in nasty weather, but these tower maintenance contracts are with other agencies. So they have different flight standards and you want them to be safe when they go out there,” McCann says.

That contractor is Lynxnet, LLC, a Virginia-based subsidiary of a NANA, the regional Native corporation based in Kotzebue. Neither the company nor the Native corporation responded to requests for comment. 

But if inclement weather held up the contractor in the summer, the dark and frigid winter certainly won’t help.

In the meantime, the Coast Guard has been advising mariners to carry satellite phones and high frequency radios. 

Those are much more expensive. The industry wants assurances if they need the Coast Guard they can use the radio that’s found on every deck of every boat in the fleet. Not to mention anglers and hunters with only handheld equipment.

“VHF radios have been for decades the primary go-to source to get a hold of the Coast Guard,” says Jerry Dzugan, the director of the Alaska Marine Education Safety Association in Sitka. “That’s what we’ve taught everyone in our classes for decades, so what they’re saying is ‘Well you’re going to have these other things instead,’ and that’s unacceptable.”

The Coast Guard also recommends mariners have working EPIRBs. Those are Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacons. But Dzugan says that’s a last resort option.

“Fishermen don’t want to hit the panic button if you don’t really have to. Which means that it’s going to delay a problem,” he says.

EPIRBs send a continuous radio signal, sending the alarm to search and rescue units the exact location of the vessel in distress. But VHF radios allow mariners to check in with the Coast Guard before a situation gets to that point.

“The Coast Guard’s always saying ‘if you have a problem let us know, even if it’s not an emergency yet, so we can keep an eye on you’,” Dzugan says.

The Coast Guard’s Lt. McCann urges mariners to be patient. He says they’ll be fixed — eventually. 

“These towers are here to stay, VHF is here to stay,” he says.

Fishermen and industry groups have been in contact with U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s office to try and speed up the process. Murkowski’s office released a short statement saying it’s aware of the issues.

With additional reporting from KCAW’s Katherine Rose in Sitka.

When the Sitka Assembly meets tonight, the group may finally approve the employment agreement for a new city administrator. John Leach, a Coast Guard officer stationed in D.C., was offered the position in September. Leach’s five-page employment agreement sets his salary at $125,000 — no start date is specified in the document yet. During his interview, Leach said he would be able to start work in the spring of 2020.

The assembly may also consider lifting the hiring freeze that has been in place since last spring, and may dissolve the assembly subcommittee that examines all positions as they become vacant to determine whether or not those posts should be filled. Recently elected assembly members Kevin Knox and Thor Christianson sponsored the agenda item. During their campaigns for office, both said that shutting down the subcommittee was a priority. 

The assembly will also consider putting an additional $1.7 million in funding toward the Marine Street substation project. In a memo, interim administrator Hugh Bevan writes that inflation as well as additional drilling and excavation at Lincoln Street pushed the overall cost of the project beyond the bond funding earmarked for it in 2016. The money will come from a “restructuring” of the overall Electric Fund capital improvement program. 

Also tonight: the assembly will …

• consider taking title to some land in the Takatz Lake area, 
• discuss the possibility of closed captioning at assembly meetings and, 
• consider a resolution to support a Sitka Trail Works grant application.

The Sitka Assembly meets tonight at 6 p.m. at Harrigan Centennial Hall. Raven News will broadcast the meeting live, following Alaska News Nightly.