A 35-year-old woman has died after the vessel she was on capsized Sunday near Sitka, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.
The Coast Guard is investigating the accident and has not yet released her name.
At about 5 p.m. Sunday, Air Station Sitka received reports of a capsized skiff and an overturned kayak in the Redoubt Bay area, each with one person on board. A Coast Guard helicopter crew, an emergency response vessel from the Sitka Fire Department, and several nearby boaters responded to the calls that came in over VHF radio.
In an email to KCAW, Coast Guard public affairs officer John Hightower said the man operating the skiff, which was a Boston Whaler, was rescued by a nearby good Samaritan boater– he was taken to emergency responders who were waiting on shore in Sitka.
Hightower said the woman was recovered from the water by another good Samaritan. She was then transferred to the Sitka Fire Department vessel, and the Coast Guard helicopter crew lowered a rescue swimmer onto the boat to help with medical treatment while they headed back to town.
Fire Chief Craig Warren said the crew made it back to Sitka shortly after 6 p.m. Sunday, where an ambulance was waiting to take the unresponsive woman to Mt. Edgecumbe Medical Center. Hightower said she was pronounced dead at the hospital. He said the woman’s next of kin have been notified.