Four die, one missing after ship sinks off Alaska: Coast Guard

0 Comments | AFP, March, 2008

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Four people were killed and one was missing Sunday after a fishing vessel sank off the coast of Alaska, the US Coast Guard said.

The Alaska Ranger reported to the Coast Guard at about 2:50 am (1050 GMT) that it was having rudder problems and had begun taking on water, prompting the 47 crew members to assemble the inflatable life rafts and abandon ship, a spokesman told AFP.

Forty-two of the fishermen were soon rescued by the Coast Guard and a fishing boat that was in the area, some 120 miles west of Dutch Harbor on Unalaska island.

However, four people died in the incident, the spokesman said, without giving details on how they were killed or whether the bodies had been recovered.

Two helicopters and a Coast Guard plane were...