A search remains underway for two missing passengers of a boat that capsized Saturday on the Kuskokwim River near Akiak.
According to an Alaska State Troopers online dispatch, another passenger was able to self-rescue, though the survivor was unaware of the location of the other passengers.
Akiachak Tribal Police Chief Mark Mata, who is helping coordinate the search, said Monday that volunteers had focused their search Sunday in an area just downriver of Akiak.
“Since yesterday, we searched the area where she actually was holding on to the branches. So we marked that place, we started below from there,” Mata said.
But Mata said that that new information gleaned from the survivor led them to adjust their search strategy on Monday.
“The survivor was saying we were searching in the wrong place because she said the boat started sinking above the original location where we started searching,” Mata said.
Mata said that volunteers from Akiak, Akiachak, Bethel, Kwethluk, and Tuluksak are taking part in the search for the two missing boaters, and that crews used sonar and drag bars to search the river Monday.
Troopers said that they have deployed a boat and airplane to the area to assist.
