Four members of a Texas family remain missing from a capsized vessel near Homer after the U.S. Coast Guard suspended search and rescue attempts Sunday night.
A Coast Guard spokesperson, Chief Petty Officer Travis Magee, said watchstanders received a call on Saturday that a roughly 28-foot boat was taking on water about 14 nautical miles west of Homer.
Good Samaritans aboard another vessel, The Salty Sea, rescued four of the eight people aboard about 15 minutes after the Coast Guard sent out a broadcast notice but could not find the others.
Magee said Coast Guardsmen searched the area with a fixed-wing aircraft and a helicopter, as well as the cutter Naushon and other boats. Alaska State Troopers and other good Samaritans also helped in the search.
Magee said the search was called off about 24 hours later on Sunday evening, after considering several factors including weather and environmental conditions as well as the number of vessels searching the area.
“After considering all those different factors and the fact that the Coast Guard was able to saturate the search area with search assets and personnel, made the decision to suspend the search for the four missing people,” he said. “And that’s not a decision that comes lightly.”
Magee identified the missing boaters as David, Mary, Colton and Brantley Maynard. According to central Texas NBC affiliate KCEN-TV, the Maynards were a family from Troy, Texas.
Neither Alaska State Troopers nor the Coast Guard provided details on the rescued boaters.
