Unalaska, AK – A crewman on the F/T Ocean Peace severed a majority of his hand while cleaning machinery and had to be medevac'ed by the Coast Guard during a blizzard near Adak.

Twenty-five year old Joemar Lontoc was cleaning a fish processing machine on Tuesday evening when it inadvertently turned on and severed 75 percent of his left hand near the wrist. The ship was about 225 miles northwest of Adak at the time of the incident. The Coast Guard immediately launched three aircraft from St. Paul and Kodiak, but the blizzard conditions made it impossible to hoist the man that night. Instead, the 200-foot trawler sailed closer to Adak while a Coast Guard flight surgeon communicated with the crew to help stabilize the patient. At day break Wednesday morning, when the ship was about 100 miles from land, a helicopter crew that had waited out the storm in Adak was able to successfully hoist Lontoc off the ship. He was immediately taken to the health clinic in Adak then medevac'ed by life flight to Anchorage.

The Ocean Peace is a head-and-gut factory trawler and, according to the company's website, was fitted with new factory machinery in 2007. It's home-ported in Dutch Harbor.