ANCHORAGE, Alaska – A Coast Guard helicopter crashed into the Bering Sea with 10 people aboard while conducting a rescue after a powerless bulk freighter grounded on Unalaska Island in southwestern Alaska.
The Coast Guard cutter Alex Haley picked up four of the 10 people. Six were unaccounted for, the Coast Guard said.
The Selendang Ayu, a 738-foot-long freighter loaded with soybeans and 440,000 gallons of fuel, broke in two when it ran aground on the island in the Aleutian chain, the Coast Guard said.
The Selendang Ayu, 738 feet long and weighing nearly 40,000 tons, had been adrift since Tuesday, coming within two miles of running aground on Bogoslof Island and headed straight for Unalaska Island, home of sea lion rookeries and crab fisheries.
U.S. Coast Guard cutters and tug boats tried to halt the drifting freighter, but 25-foot swells and 30-knot winds broke the tow lines on each attempt.
A tugboat attached a line to the freighter on Tuesday evening, securing it for 12 hours until the line broke and the vessel resumed its path to shore.
The crew of the Selendang Ayu dropped anchor when it reached shallow water, but it was lost in the rough seas after a half-hour.
The crew later dropped its other anchor, which only temporarily held the freighter four-fifths of a mile from shore, Coast Guard Rear Adm. James Olson, commander of the 17th Coast Guard District, said.
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