Boat sinks in Alaska; 4 are dead, 1 missing
A fishing boat sank off the Aleutian Islands on Sunday, leaving four crew members including the captain dead and another missing, the Coast Guard said.
Forty-two of the 47 crew members on board the Seattle-based Alaska Ranger were rescued, and the search continued for the missing person, said Chief Petty Officer Barry Lane.
The vessel started taking on water shortly before 3 a.m. after losing control of its rudder 120 miles west of Dutch Harbor.
The ship’s owner, the Fishing Co. of Alaska, said in a statement that it lacked “sufficient information to determine why the vessel foundered.”
Seas with 8-foot waves and 25-knot winds were reported at the time the ship sank, Lane said. The Coast Guard was investigating the sinking, he said.
The company identified those killed as ship’s captain Eric Peter Jacobsen, chief engineer Daniel Cook, mate David Silveira and crewman Byron Carrillo. The men’s ages and hometowns were not released.
State environmental regulators were notified that the ship was carrying 145,000 gallons of diesel when it sank. An oil sheen covered an area of a quarter-mile by a half-mile, Coast Guard spokesman Ray Dwyer said.
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