A Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew and an HC-130 Hercules aircrew are searching for a 23-year-old male reported to have fallen overboard from the motor vessel Challenge Prelude, 126 miles south of Sand Point, Alaska, on March 25.
District 17 command center watchstanders received notification at about 1:25 p.m. from the master of the 587-foot product tanker, Challenge Prelude, stating that they noticed a seaman was missing at approximately 11:45 a.m. The master reported he sounded a general emergency alarm and conducted a thorough search of the vessel.
The master turned the Challenge Prelude around and followed his previous trackline in efforts to locate the missing man.
Watchstanders issued an urgent marine information broadcast and directed the launch of Air Station Kodiak aviation assets.
“We are fully prepared and readily equipped to conduct search patterns and provide search and rescue efforts for this young man,” said Lt. Danny Piazza, a Coast Guard District 17 watchstander. “Our primary concern is to locate him and get him out of the water and into the necessary higher medical care as quickly and efficiently as possible.”
Weather on scene is nine mile-per-hour winds and three-foot seas with 39 degrees water temperature.
