Searchers have recovered the body of an excavator operator who had been working on a road project north of Sitka when the excavator became submerged.
Alaska State Troopers said 61-year-old Maurice Kimber St. Michell Jr. of Sitka was reported unaccounted for late Thursday morning after the rig went into Katlian Bay.
Responders recovered St. Michell's body from the bay shortly after 2 p.m. Thursday.
An autopsy is planned by the state medical examiner’s office.