An extensive air and ground search is underway for an overdue hunter last seen Sunday near Newtok, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.
The 59-year-old man, identified by Alaska State Troopers in an online dispatch as Tom John, was reported overdue after he left Newtok at about 10 a.m. Sunday riding a snowmachine and towing a kayak.
"Tom was last seen wearing a black coat and black pants," troopers wrote. "He was hunting with a red-and-yellow single-person kayak."
Air and ground searchers looked for John "throughout the day" Monday, troopers said, but found only the snowmachine near local hunting grounds at about 12:30 p.m. Monday.
Coast Guard spokesman Petty Officer 1st Class Bill Colclough said Tuesday he didn't have word on John's itinerary or what survival or communications gear he may have been carrying. Friends and family had not heard from the man since he left Newtok, a community of 400 people about 100 miles northwest of Bethel.
As of Tuesday night, no additional signs of John's whereabouts had been found, Colclough said.
Search efforts were focused initially on a 1,400-square-mile area extending from Nunivak Island to northwest of Hazen Bay, but the search area expanded to include more than 600 additional square miles Tuesday, Colclough said.
An HC-130 aircraft and an MH-60 helicopter were launched from Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak to assist in the search, and a U.S. Department of Interior plane and crew joined them as day shifted to night, he said.
"They're searching with Alaska State Trooper ground crews, as well as people from the villages of Newtok and Tununak and the Civil Air Patrol," Colclough said. "Much of the search is along the shoreline in that area, where there are varying degrees of shore ice present on the ground and in the sea."
On Tuesday, there were ideal weather conditions, allowing the HC-130 crew to continue searching on past nightfall. The aircraft is equipped with night vision capabilities, Colclough said.
"We're leveraging the use of a forward-looking infrared radar with the favorable (weather) conditions to help located the missing hunter," he said.
Weather in the search area included clear skies and more than 11 miles of visibility Tuesday, the Coast Guard said.
Anyone with information on John's whereabouts is asked to call troopers in Bethel at 907-543-2294.