JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON — Airmen with the Alaska Air National Guard’s 210th and 212th Rescue Squadrons rescued three people in Cook Inlet on Friday morning, the three were stranded on a sandbar in the mud flats about six miles southeast of Fire Island.

The Alaska Rescue Coordination Center had received the call from the Anchorage Fire Department at 9:05 a.m., requesting assistance to rescue occupants of the small vessel near Fire Island that was taking on water and had begun to sink.

The Anchorage Fire Department received a 9-1-1 call at 9:02 am, from a small watercraft in Cook Inlet, requesting assistance. The boat was described by the caller as a blue Jetcraft that was rapidly taking on water and was 50% submerged. The caller reported that there were three persons onboard, all wearing lifejackets and carrying a radio and flares. They reported GPS coordinates that put them in the vicinity of Fire Island.

The boaters related that during the quick, out-going tide, they began taking on water with a real possibility of sinking, or being stranded on the mudflats with no way to evacuate on their own.

AFD dispatched 10 units, including Boat 1, a rescue boat, to search for the sinking watercraft. AFD units responded to ground vantage points, simultaneously, in an attempt to quickly locate the watercraft.

An HH-60 Pave Hawk from the 210th Rescue Squadron, with a Guardian Angel team (pararescuemen) from the 212th Rescue Squadron on board, immediately responded. They spotted the three survivors in their small Jetcraft boat stranded on the mud flats, several miles from dry land.

The watercraft was located by AFD Boat 1 as an AKANG rescue helicopter arrived over the scene. The Air National Guard’s rescue team hoisted the three survivors into the Pave Hawk and transported them to Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage at 9:54 a.m., where they were released after medical evaluation.

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