1 dead, 4 missing from Sitka fishing charter boat

A search continued near Sitka on Monday for four people missing from a fishing charter boat.

One person was found dead Sunday night with the partly submerged boat, which went missing in rough weather, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

A call came in around 5 p.m. Sunday that the 30-foot Kingfisher Charters boat with five aboard was overdue, said Petty Officer Third Class Ian Gray.

The boat was last seen underway in the area of Cape Edgecumbe, near Sitka Sound, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

The Sitka Sentinel reported that a helicopter launched around 7 p.m. and located the boat minutes later. The boat was “half submerged,” the Sentinel reported, with the identifying vessel number visible.

The boat was located near Low Island, about a mile east of Shoals Point on Kruzof Island, the Coast Guard said. One person’s body was recovered. The other four people on the boat remain missing. Their names have not been released.

The weather was rough on Sunday evening when the boat went missing, Gray said.

“They recorded six to ten-foot seas,” he said.

A search for the four missing people was ongoing Monday evening, with a Coast Guard helicopter, a C-130 plane and the Coast Guard Cutter Douglas Denman searching, along with the Sitka Fire Department and private vessels in the area.