Western Alaska hunting party rescued after being trapped on sea ice for nearly 2 days, officials say

Anchorage Daily News on Apr 15, 2026

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ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Four people stranded on a Bering Sea ice floe for nearly two days were rescued Sunday via helicopter, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

The Coast Guard said in a Wednesday statement that it rescued a subsistence seal hunting party of three adults and one child about 10 miles west of the Western Alaska community of Chefornak on Sunday morning, after the group was unable to reach the shore in their boat due to the ice.

No injuries were reported, the Coast Guard said.

Alaska State Troopers reported to the Coast Guard at about 4:24 p.m. Saturday that the hunting party had been trapped on the ice for more than 24 hours and needed help, according to the Coast Guard statement. The group freed their 18-foot boat at one point but were blocked by moving ice from reaching rescuers on the shore who had come from the village on snowmachines, the Coast Guard said.

Coast Guard crews in an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter and HC-130 Hercules plane took off from Kodiak Island and reached the hunting party at about 5 a.m. Sunday, according to the statement.

The group was lifted into the helicopter and taken to Chefornak, the Coast Guard said.

Although it was a challenging mission, officials said, the hunting party was prepared with multiple forms of communication to make it easier for rescuers to locate them.

“We battled nearly every Alaska-centric aviation weather hazard imaginable, such as flying over 800 miles in near-zero visibility through mountainous terrain, blowing snow and icing conditions,” Lt. Cmdr. Alexis Chavarria-Aguilar, pilot-in-command of the helicopter, said in the statement. “It was a long, difficult night, but I’m so proud of everyone involved who worked seamlessly together to bring four people home safely.”

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