Five Missing After Crab Fishing Boat Sinks Off Alaska

Five Missing After Crab Fishing Boat Sinks Off Alaska
Aimee Ortiz Jan. 1, 2020 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/01/us/scandies-rose-fishing-boat-alaska....

Two of seven crew members were rescued after the Scandies Rose, a 130-foot-long crab fishing vessel, sank on Tuesday night, the Coast Guard said.

Coast Guard rescuers were searching for five people after the boat they were on sank off Alaska, officials said on Wednesday.

Two crew members were rescued after the boat, a 130-foot-long crab fishing vessel called the Scandies Rose, sank near Sutwik Island around 10 p.m. on Tuesday with seven aboard, the Coast Guard said in a statement.

“We are conducting an extensive search in a 300-square-mile area to locate the five missing persons from the Scandies Rose,” Lt. Wade Arnold, command duty officer at the 17th District command center, said in the statement.

Two of the crew members were rescued from a life raft by a Coast Guard helicopter, officials said. The Coast Guard dispatched MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter and HC-130 Hercules airplane crews from Air Station Kodiak after receiving information about the Scandies Rose’s mayday call.

The crew members were taken to a hospital and were in stable condition, said Petty Officer Second Class Melissa McKenzie of the 17th District.

Diverted from the Bering Sea, the Coast Guard cutter Mellon was expected to arrive in the area Wednesday evening to assist with the search, she said.

Gary Cobban Jr., 61, and his son David, 30, were both aboard the boat when it sank, Deanna Cobban, the elder Mr. Cobban’s sister, said late Wednesday night as the two men were still missing.

Ms. Cobban said her brother, the captain and a part owner of the Scandies Rose, was a third-generation Alaska fisherman.

She described the elder Mr. Cobban as a “hard-working crab fisher” who spent all his time out on the boat.

“He loved fishing,” she said. “He’s a crabber.”

Mr. Cobban, who had been fishing with his son in recent years, would not have gotten on a boat if it was not safe, Ms. Cobban said.

It is not clear how the boat, which was on its way to Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands, sank, she said.

“All we know is Gary knew he couldn’t save the boat, he put out a mayday that we’re going to have to abandon,” Ms. Cobban said.

The Scandies Rose’s last known position was 170 miles southwest of Air Station Kodiak, on Kodiak Island.