Air Station Kodiak Jayhawk Hoists Ailing Man from Trawler

Jay Barrett/KMXT
An Air Station Kodiak helicopter crew spent some long hours in transit to hoist a 43-year-old man from a factory trawler in the Bering Sea Wednesday. The ailing man aboard the 255-foot Alaska Juris was suffering from heart attack symptoms, which were reported to the Coast Guard at about 9 a.m. Wednesday morning.
An MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter was dispatched from Kodiak and arrived at the position of the Alaska Juris, about 150 miles northeast of the Pribilof Islands at about 5 p.m. The man was transferred to a commercial medevac plane less than an hour later in Saint Paul, and he was then flown to Anchorage for further treatment. His name was not released and his current condition is unknown.
The roundtrip distance flown by the Jayhawk crew was over 1,000 miles. Search and rescue controller Adam De Rocher in Juneau said the medevac illustrates the Coast Guard’s ability to respond to statewide emergencies.