Page 16: of Marine News Magazine (August 2006)

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Rescuers from the U.S. Coast Guard and Alaska Air National Guard saved 23 crew members from an Asian cargo ship taking on water south of the Aleutian

Islands, officials said.

All 23 crew members were hoisted into two National Guard Pave Hawk heli- copters and a Coast Guard helicopter and taken to Adak Island in the Aleutians.

The rescue was conducted in very chal- lenging weather, said Master Sgt. Sal

Provenzano with the Alaska Rescue Coor- dination Center. A nearby merchant marine vessel was standing by to take any crew member who couldn't fit on the three helicopters, but the thought of conducting another 23 hoist operations to lower the crew members on the ship in that weather was deemed not the best choice.

One crew member with a broken ankle was to be flown by an HC130 to Anchor- age immediately after landing in Adak,

Provenzano said.

It was not immediately known how long the other crew members, who all wore survival suits when the ship started taking on water, would remain on Adak

Island.

A crewmember from the Singapore based container ship Cougar Ace, a car carrier with 23 people on board, contacted the North Pacific Search and Rescue

Coordination Center on Sunday. He reported that they were taking on water and listing 80 degrees.

The Cougar Ace was located about 230 miles south of the Aleutian Island Chain, in the middle of the North Pacific Ocean.

The Coast Guard cutter Rush, a 378-ft. cutter based out of Hawaii, and a C-130 aircraft and crew from Air Station Kodiak, assisted in the rescue effort.

The Alaska Coast Guard is reporting that a member of a salvage team, looking at how to stabilize the listing ship, died when he lost his footing and slid down the ship's deck and hit his head.

A team of four was prepping to leave the Cougar Ace when a naval architect slipped and was knocked unconscious. He was flown to a Coast Guard cutter nearby with a doctor and a clinic but efforts to revive him were unsuccessful. He was declared dead about an hour later.

The four-member salvage team had just completed an internal survey of the ship when the accident occurred. They were preparing to disembark, said Charles

Nalen, vice president of environmental safety quality assurance for Crowley Mar- itime, owner of Titan Salvage.

They were on the covered main deck and he slid down a considerable distance, somewhere in the range of 80 ft., the com- pany said.

The Unified Command is continuing to monitor the condition of the Cougar Ace, evaluate options for improving the ves- sel's list and plan for a movement of the vessel. Using information obtained from the initial vessel survey, the decision was made to take advantage of a favorable weather window and rig a tow from the tug Emma Foss to the Cougar Ace as a test of the towing arrangement and to gain some additional control of the vessel.

The Emma Foss is maintaining the tow at minimum speeds to ensure a safe tow- ing configuration on a northeast heading.

The tow will shift to the tug Sea Victory.

The Unified Command is considering three primary options for the vessel. A final decision is dependent on several variables including weather, approved ports, stability, safety and expected degree of success. Port assessments continue.

A scientific team including the Alaska

Department of Environmental Conserva- tion, NOAA, Polaris Applied Sciences,

Alaska Department of Natural Resources and Alaska Department of Fish and Game is part of the incident command structure in Anchorage and is keeping the Unified

Command apprised of the natural resources and environmental issues in the port areas being considered. 16 • MarineNews • August, 2006

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