Two crew members who sustained injuries in a helicopter crash on Read Island in Southeast Alaska on Monday evening have been discharged from the hospital. Meanwhile, two others remain hospitalized at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle as of Wednesday night. Their condition has improved from serious to fair.
The incident involved an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter, which had departed from Sitka to aid a crab fishing vessel in distress. The helicopter crashed around 11 pm on Monday. The exact cause of the crash remains unknown, but conditions at the time included approximately 30-knot winds and seas with four to five feet swells.
Alaska Wildlife Troopers and Petersburg Fire and Rescue were the first to respond, reaching the site shortly before 1 am on Tuesday. A subsequent Jayhawk from Sitka arrived around 1:40 am to provide support. The responders administered medical care to the four injured individuals and transported them to Petersburg. From there, they were moved to Seattle via a C-130 Hercules aircraft for treatment at Harborview Medical Center, a Level I trauma center serving Washington, Alaska, and Idaho.