The processing vessel Excellence was tied up at a cold storage dock in Unalaska on Friday when efforts to repair a damaged ammonia line went wrong. Their store of ammonia -- more than 20,000 pounds -- started to leak. The crew were evacuated safely, although two local welders were taken off the ship and medevaced to Anchorage.
Gina Walker, the hospitality manager at the Grand Aleutian Hotel, says the Excellence’s purser contacted her Friday afternoon asking for rooms for her crew.
After two days of unsuccessful efforts to stop an ammonia leak from the factory-processor Excellence, the ship was safely towed to Wide Bay Saturday night.
The Excellence’s captain first reported the leak to local authorities on Friday afternoon. All 129 crewmembers were evacuated from the vessel, along with the crew of a neighboring boat. Two local welders who were trying to repair the ammonia line were medevaced to Anchorage. One has been released from the hospital, the other is reported to be under observation, but in stable condition.
Local authorities maintained a safety perimeter around the Kloosterboer dock throughout the weekend and periodically shut down parts of Ballyhoo Road. Firefighters sprayed water at the ship to smother the ammonia fumes. cont...
The Air Force has grounded a squadron of F-16 fighter jets in Japan after one of their pilots crashed in the North Pacific this Sunday. The pilot was on his way to Alaska when his jet crashed about 250 miles off the Japanese coast. He safely ejected from the plane and spent six hours in the water before being picked up by a commercial cargo ship transiting the Aleutians. He was transferred to the Coast Guard cutter Monro and then dropped off in Cold Bay on Tuesday. The Air Force is performing safety checks on the 45 F-16s stationed at its base in Misawa Japan.
A California man died at the Trident Seafood processing plant on Wednesday, before starting his early morning shift.
According to Alaska State Troopers, Edgardo P. Sanchez, 55, became short of breath and struggled to communicate. He then collapsed, and efforts to resuscitate him failed. Sanchez was pronounced dead by a physician’s assistant who responded to the incident.
Next of kin have been notified of Sanchez’s death, and an autopsy has been declined. Foul play is not suspected.
The Greenpeace vessel Esperanza has arrived in Unalaska.
The rainbow-covered ship checked in with port security around 8:30am, and has spent the day sitting off of Front Beach. The crew plans to stay in Unalaska for the next few days before leaving for the Chukchi Sea. There, The Esperanza will be conducting research on Shell’s lease site and monitoring any drilling activity that occurs. The voyage is part of Greenpeace’s campaign against the oil company’s Arctic program.
Two Unalaska-based Alaska State Troopers brought a Bristol Bay fisherman back to life after a near drowning on Thursday.
Fifty-four year old Jose Orendez and his adult son were heading from their fishing boat to shore in a 12-foot Zodiac when it capsized, sending the pair into the icy waters near Egegik, on the Alaska Peninsula. Both were wearing lifejackets, but Orendez got caught in a set-net line and wasn’t able to make it to shore. By the time bystanders got him to the beach, Orendez had stopped breathing.
Trooper regional commander Will Ellis says that’s when Trooper Jason Ball and Public Safety Technician Shawn Olsen arrived on scene.
Oil and gas development in the Arctic could mean some major changes for the city of Adak. On Tuesday, Offshore Systems Inc and several subsidiaries of the Aleut Corporation signed an agreement to collaborate on developing the former military base as a support hub for Arctic oil drilling. OSI spokesperson Jim Butler says the community is a logical place for future development.
“Adak is a former naval station. It has significant fuel storage capacity. It has in excess of 400,000 feet of warehouse space. It has runways, large runways, that allow for heavy cargo planes to come in and out, passenger vessels. It has a number of lodging facilities and everything from an idle movie theatre to a roller rink. It’s basically a small town that is currently not being utilized, in addition to a deepwater port in a protected area.”
Cleveland Volcano sent up its largest ash plume since 2001 on Tuesday afternoon. A pilot flying in the vicinity estimated the height of the plume at 35,000, although Alaska Volcano Observatory geophysicist Dave Schneider says that's a rough guess.
"[It depends] on [the pilots'] perspective - the accuracy really depends on how far away they are and which way the plume is blowing etcetera. We also saw the explosion on our distant seismic network and it appears to be short duration, on the order of several minutes, so it's not a very significant event and it's unlikely to cause much disruption to aviation."
A strong earthquake shook Shemya Island this morning, but caused no damage to Eareckson Air Station.
The 6.0-magnitude earthquake occurred just before 8am in a mostly uninhabited part of the Western Aleutians. The epicenter was approximately 100 miles away from Shemya Island, and the dozen or so airmen stationed there noticed the ground shaking.
"Everybody felt it, but there were no thrown objects," says Natasha Rupert, a seismologist with the Alaska Earthquake Information Center. "It wasn’t even strong enough to topple objects from the shelves."
