Well Done – Alaskan Air Rescue Crews

It is a tribute to the professionalism and bravery of the U.S. Coast Guard and Alaska Air National Guard.

Imagine a 65-story building tilted sideways at an 90-degree angle. Then imagine dumping that building into the middle of a frigid ocean, some 230 miles from the nearest land mass, and you get a sense of the challenge that awaited rescue teams that responded Monday night to the predicament of the Asian cargo ship Cougar Ace.

The Cougar Ace left Japan on July 22, with 23 people on board and is a Singapore home ported vessel. It is carrying 4,813 vehicles, en-route to Vancouver B.C. The vessel is carrying 430 metric tons of fuel oil and 112 metric tons of diesel fuel. According to the USCG, there is a oil sheen extending 2 miles from the vessel.

Bringing all 23 of the ship's crew safely ashore was an astonishing, almost miraculous, feat. Thanks to their teamwork, involving three helicopters, three support aircraft and repeated midair refuelings, this peril on the cold high seas did not produce a human disaster.

The first rescue attempt involved dropping several life rafts from a Coast Guard C-130 out of Kodiak Island, but the crewmen were unable to reach the rafts and the car-carrier drifted over them.

The Coast Guard also dispatched a Jayhawk rescue helicopter from Kodiak and the Air National Guard sent two Pavehawk copters from Kulis Air National Guard Base in Anchorage.

The Coast Guard sent two C-130s to refuel the helicopters in mid-air. The rescue team
included crews trained and equipped to parachute down to the ship if needed.

Hardly a routine night but it demonstrated the kind of skill and courage we have come to expect from our men and women in service. Well done. The twenty-three crew members rescued from an Asian cargo ship taking on water south of Aleutian Islands were delivered safely to land.

The operation began at 9:05 p.m., Monday and by 9:30 p.m.; the first seven crewmembers had been hoisted from the vessel by a Pavehawk helicopter.

At 9:43 p.m., the Coast Guard helicopter and crew had hoisted the next eight, departing for Adak Island at 9:51 p.m.

After completing another mid-air refueling from a nearby Air National Guard C-130 tanker, the second Pavehawk helicopter hoisted the remaining crewmembers at 10:09 p.m. Weather conditions on scene during the operation were reported as 13-20 knot winds from the west. Sea state was 11-14 feet. Conditions are overcast with intermittent rain and patchy fog.

As it was, the rescue required heroic effort, coming as it did from bases at least 1,200 miles away in Anchorage. Within an hour of the rescuers' arrival, the crew had been plucked off the ship. Barely 24 hours after the distress call went out, the crew and all rescuers were back to safety.

Because of their dedication and skill, 23 seamen are alive despite falling into grave danger so far from help. Alaskans and others salute the rescuers' fine work.

As with many of our service men serving all over the world, the BOTTOM LINE is this: A fine rescue averted a human disaster on Alaska's high seas.

Ice

* Photos by U.S. Coast Guard