USCG calls off search for seafarer missing from Island Navigation tanker off Alaska

US Coast Guard (USCG) said it has called off its search for a crewman missing presumed overboard from an oil products tanker off of Alaska.

The man, aged in his early twenties, is believed to have fallen from the 2006-built vessel Challenge Prelude when it was about 125 miles south of Sand Point.

Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak sent an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter and a C-130 Hercules aircrew to join the Challenge Prelude in searching the area where the ship had been when the man had was last seen alive on board.

After a 14-hour search covering a 680 square mile search of the Gulf of Alaska, USCG ended the operation citing the length of time and the temperature of the water at 39 degrees Fahrenheit.

The Hong Kong-flagged Challenge Prelude, operated by the Tung family’s Island Navigation, had been en route from the Port of Onsan in South Korea to the US Port of Anchorage, Alaska.