Bethel Search and Rescue is urging travelers to be careful and stay on used trails as members try to find a man believed to have driven an all-terrain vehicle into the frozen Kuskokwim River late Friday night.
The missing man, who has not been named publicly by Alaska State Troopers, reportedly rode a four-wheeler into an open hole through river ice during a trip between Bethel and Napaskiak.
A trooper dispatch said another man, who was traveling on a different four-wheeler behind the missing man, reported seeing ATV tracks going into a hole in the river, and said that he could see a four-wheeler underwater in the open hole.
A search and rescue volunteer from Napaskiak who traveled to the area the following day also saw tracks leading to open water.
On Sunday evening, Bethel Search and Rescue posted on social media that its members were primarily using electronic methods like underwater cameras and sonar devices to search for the missing man because of concerns for searcher safety if they were to venture out onto new, thin ice. Search efforts were focused between Oscarville and Napaskiak.
Last year, this sonar search method helped recover the body of 20-year-old Michael Isaac, a Marshall man who went missing in November 2023.
