Boy, 15, survives days on overturned skiff in Bering Sea

A 15-year-old boy survived days on the hull of an overturned fishing skiff in the Bering Sea before a passing vessel pulled him from the water on Monday, while his older brother and a cousin drowned.

An HC-130 Hercules aircrew from Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak spotted the teenager at about 10:30 a.m. Monday, sitting on top of the capsized 18-foot skiff roughly 4 miles east of St. Lawrence Island, the U.S. Coast Guard said. The crew dropped a life raft and survival equipment. The plane was low on fuel and had to leave.

Before it went, the aircrew laid a line of flares across the water to steer the Northwest Explorer toward the overturned boat. The 162-foot vessel was working a federal survey nearby with six crew members and seven scientists aboard. Its captain, Adam White, turned for the coordinates and wrote after docking in Nome that it had been the longest four hours he had spent.

The trip out of Savoonga

Three relatives left Savoonga on the night of Friday, Sept. 4, to fish for halibut in an 18-foot skiff. They were expected back at about 3 a.m. Sunday, the Coast Guard said. Savoonga is a Siberian Yupik village of about 800 people on the northern coast of St. Lawrence Island.

A fishing line got caught in the boat's motor and the crew could not untangle it, Darren Toolie-Noongwook, an older brother of the survivor and the family's spokesperson, told NBC News. The weather turned later that night and the skiff flipped. He told KTUU the boat went over at about 8:03 p.m. Friday.

The Coast Guard has not said what caused the skiff to capsize. Petty Officer Nathan Bishop told the Anchorage Daily News that there is no active Coast Guard investigation and that the agency cannot speculate on the cause or the exact time.

The older brother, Sidney, was carrying a life jacket to the 15-year-old when he became tangled in the lines and the boat went over, Toolie-Noongwook said. He drowned first. The survivor, Parker, and the cousin climbed onto the upturned hull and got through the first night together.

Alone on the hull

The cousin panicked during the second night on the hull and jumped into the water, Toolie-Noongwook told NBC News. He swam five or six feet before he drowned. The 15-year-old was alone on the hull after that.

In middle of the night, waves hitting him, he was kneeling and praying ... He believed that he was gonna make it. That's how he got through it.

Toolie-Noongwook asked that only his brothers' first names be published, and said the cousin's name should not be used without permission from his family.

The Northwest Explorer reached the coordinates and found the overturned boat less than half a mile off its starboard bow, White said. A crew member picked out the teenager through binoculars, waving. The crew sounded the ship's horn as they closed in, and video of the rescue shows the boy kneeling on the hull and giving a thumbs-up.

He could not reach the life rafts, and the skiff had drifted about 8 miles from its last known position. He caught a heaving line thrown from the ship and held on while the crew reeled him in and pulled him from the water. He was moderately hypothermic, and White kept a log that showed his body temperature rising as the crew warmed him with blankets from the ship's dryers.

A search delayed by weather

Alaska State Troopers were told the boat was overdue at about 2:30 p.m. Sunday, spokesman Austin McDaniel said. A local search and rescue effort was already out of Savoonga. Once village officials reported they could not respond because of the weather, the troopers activated the Alaska Air National Guard's Rescue Coordination Center and the Coast Guard.

That activation came at 8:30 p.m. on Sunday, six hours after the troopers were first told the boat was overdue, the Nome Nugget reported.

Weather on scene and poor visibility kept the Coast Guard's HC-130 at Air Station Kodiak on the ground until Monday morning.

Savoonga volunteers looked from shore in the meantime. Two HC-130s and two MH-60 Jayhawk helicopters flew from Air Station Kodiak, along with an HC-130 from the Alaska Air National Guard's 211th Rescue Squadron carrying pararescuemen from the 212th Rescue Squadron, according to a Coast Guard release. Both squadrons belong to the 176th Wing. The Arctic District coordinated the effort with the Alaska Rescue Coordination Center, the two squadrons at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, troopers and local authorities in Savoonga.

Distance from the nearest base

St. Lawrence Island lies just over 160 miles west of Nome and within about 40 miles of Russia. Coast Guard aircraft responding there fly in from Air Station Kodiak, and the HC-130 that found the teenager had to break off to refuel before the ship reached him.

Criticism of the response time has dominated discussion on social media in the region, along with calls for a permanent Coast Guard presence to shorten it, the Nome Nugget reported. Refueling and crew requirements add further barriers.

Guns fired into the ocean

People fired guns into the ocean at 8:03 p.m. in Savoonga, Gambell, Nome, Shishmaref, Teller, Wales and Nunam Iqua to honor the two who died, KTUU reported. That is the time the family says the skiff flipped. Toolie-Noongwook said one of his older brothers decided to do it, and other villages said they would join.

An aunt of one of the two who died wrote in an online fundraising request that the village is mourning, the Anchorage Daily News reported. She said her nephew tried to hang on to the others as long as he could.

After the boat reached Nome

The crew recovered the two bodies, first the brother from beneath the hull and then the cousin, with help from the Coast Guard, White said. The Coast Guard ended its search that day, KNBA reported. The Northwest Explorer docked at the Nome causeway on Tuesday morning with the survivor and both bodies aboard.

The teenager was treated in Nome, released and flown home to Savoonga on a regularly scheduled Bering Air flight, the Nome Nugget reported.

The Bering Strait School District plans to send a counselor from Gambell to Savoonga and is working with Norton Sound Health Corporation's Liitfik Behavioral Health Services team, KNBA reported. Two behavioral health aides and a clinical associate are already in the village, spokesperson Reba Lean said, and weather will determine when more staff can travel from Nome.

We are grateful for the incredible efforts of the motor vessel Northwest Explorer, Federal, State, Village first responders and mission partners who assisted in the effort that resulted in a life saved.

White told NBC News that he met the family in Nome and described the meeting as overwhelming, a long hug carrying both joy and sorrow. The rescue and the recovery were bittersweet for those aboard, he told the Anchorage Daily News.

Toolie-Noongwook told KTUU that the 15-year-old had gone out on the skiff to earn money to get his hair permed, and that he is recovering at home. He said his brother told their mother he is excited to get the perm now.