A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter crashed late Monday on an island in Southeast Alaska, and all four people aboard survived, officials said.
The Sitka-based MH-60T Jayhawk helicopter crashed on Read Island during a search and rescue mission, U.S. Coast Guard Alaska wrote in a statement Tuesday.
Two crew members were being treated for serious injuries, the Coast Guard said.
A fishing vessel reported the crash around 11:05 p.m., it said. The boat had been flooding and was receiving help from the Coast Guard.
Alaska Wildlife Troopers and Petersburg Fire and Rescue responded to the crash scene around 12:50 a.m. Tuesday, and a second Coast Guard helicopter crew from Sitka responded by about 1:40 a.m., according to the statement.
The four crew members were transported by helicopter to Petersburg and were then transferred to Seattle for a higher level of care via a Coast Guard C-130 Hercules aircraft, the statement said.
“We have opened an investigation into the cause of this event and will be forthcoming with the results as they become available,” Rear Adm. Megan Dean, commander of the Coast Guard’s 17th District, said in the statement.
Two Coast Guard cutters responded to the area to help the flooding fishing vessel and established a security zone around the helicopter crash, the statement said.