Freighter Spill Threatens Wildlife
In a double-decker disaster, a Coast Guard helicopter hit a 40-foot wave and crashed into the sea — while it was rescuing crewmembers of a massive freighter that had run ashore.
Lt. David Neal, who piloted the doomed rescue mission, told CBS Affiliate KTVA he remembers seeing the huge wave just before being plunged into frigid waters. Six of the crewmembers, after being rescued once, are missing. Their chances for survival are little to none, because estimates put survival time in the 43-degree waters of the Bering Sea at about three hours.
Officials fear the thousands of gallons of heavy bunker fuel and diesel spilled from a soybean freighter that was ripped clean in half off the shore of Unalaska Island may severely damage a sensitive wildlife habitat. Wednesday night's spill happened in close proximity to a wildlife refuge, and the general area is home to sea lions, harbor seals, sea otters, tanner crabs, halibut and kelp beds.
But with resources scarce in the remote and harsh area 800 miles southwest of Anchorage, near the Aleutian Islands, the search for the missing took precedence over the environmental threat.
"There are only so many boats and so many planes, and they have been directed to the search for life," Kurt Fredriksson, acting commissioner for the Department of Environmental Conservation, said Thursday.
Coast Guard rescue crews searched into the night, with officials saying they had not given up on finding someone alive. According to KTVA, among the missing are five Indians and one Filipino.
No sign of the missing crew had been found as of early Friday, a coast guard spokesman said. Chief Petty Officer Roger Wetherell in Anchorage said there were no aircraft searching in the dark, but that at least one cutter was at the scene of the grounding.
The 738-foot Selendang Ayu was cleaved neatly in two, both pieces grounded upright and parallel about 200 feet from the shore near Skan Bay on the western side of the island. Farther upshore lay the wreckage of the Coast Guard helicopter, its red fuselage blackened and barely recognizable.
The freighter belongs to Singapore-based IMC Group. IMC crew manager Loh C.W. Weng said the missing were Indian citizens Z.M. Vaz, age 46; Blaise M. Mascarenhas, 33; Narendra S. Yadav, 52; Durg V. Singh, 54; and Didlar Singh, 44. Carlos Flores Santiago, 45, is the missing crew member from the Philippines.
Rescuers battled rolling seas, 30-knot winds and the thin Alaska daylight. On Thursday evening, officials said boats would continue the search into the night.
"It's always challenging in the Alaska environment, but these aircraft crews are some of the best we've got," Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Darrell Wilson said.
Fredriksson said it was not known how much fuel had leaked, but called it a major spill that could take months to clean up, threatening sensitive wildlife habitats.
"You've got bunker oil streaming from a ship that's broken in half," he said. "We are in winter and in a very difficult Aleutian Island environment that will put everybody to the test."
The freighter was carrying 480,000 gallons of heavy bulk fuel and another 21,000 gallons of diesel fuel.
IMC has contracted a private spill response company, Fredriksson said. He said the rough seas could help break up some of the oil and disperse it to the open sea. "That may be a good thing, in terms of shoreline impact," he said.
DEC spokeswoman Lynda Giguere said conservation officials will be working with the Department of Fish and Game to determine potential threats to wildlife.
"The fuel we're dealing with is No. 6 fuel oil. It's a very dense, viscous oil and it's not easy to clean up," Giguere said. "This is particularly persistent. It's high viscosity and it tends to remain on the surface. It's not good stuff."