Joey Pfeiffer, who is deaf and visually impaired as a result of cerebral palsy, was uninjured in the ordeal, police said.
He had been playing in front of his house Sunday evening. He was last seen around 8 p.m., and his parents reported him missing around midnight after they were unable to find him, said police Lt. Dave Parker.
Anchorage police were joined in the search by volunteer search-team members, detectives from the crimes-against-children unit, Alaska Search and Rescue Dogs, the Anchorage Fire Department, the statewide search coordinator for troopers, and the helicopter crew.
The terrain around the family's house is steep, heavily wooded and home to moose and bears, police said. Some of the ground searchers saw bears.
Around 4 a.m. Monday, Joey was spotted with the use of Forward Looking Infrared technology on the troopers' Helo 1. He was crawling on a ridge in an alder thicket about two miles from home, on all fours, "which was terrifying to us," Parker said. "What would a bear think?"
An Anchorage police officer on the helicopter knew enough sign language to communicate with Joey, who was persuaded to board the helicopter, Parker said. They flew to Bear Valley Elementary School, where medics checked him and determined he needed no treatment. The child was unscathed, Parker said.
His parents told police that normally he played right in front of his house.
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