Coast Guard: 4 dead, 1 missing in fishing vessel's sinking

Four crewmembers of a fishing vessel sinking off the coast of Alaska have died, a U.S. Coast Guard spokesperson said Sunday.

The Seattle, Washington-based Alaska Ranger was in 10-foot seas and winds of 30 to 35 miles per hour when it reported water was leaking into its steering gear compartment about 2:50 a.m. Sunday. The trawler had 47 people on board, said Chief Petty Officer Barry Lane, a Coast Guard spokesperson. Four of those had been confirmed dead by late morning. The 180-foot processing trawler was about 120 miles west of Dutch Harbor, in the remote Aleutian Islands, when the crew reported being "overwhelmed by water" and abandoned ship. Most of the crew had survival suits to protect them from water that was near-freezing, said Cmdr. Todd Trimpert, a Coast Guard spokesman. No cause of death was immediately known for the four crew members who died, but "certainly, they were in the water a long time," Trimpert said. Trimpert said investigators have not determined why the ship sank, but did not believe weather was the cause. The sinking left an unknown amount of diesel fuel on the surface of the Bering Sea.

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