Alaska News

Alaska Air Guard saves rafters stranded in Susitna Valley for 5 days

Rescuers with the Air National Guard from two states rescued two rafters Wednesday afternoon. They'd been stranded for five days in a tent on the bank of Lake Creek in the Susitna Valley, an official said.

The area is about 30 miles southwest of Talkeetna.

"The father and son, 55- and 25-years-old, were rafting with a third-party when the raft overturned. Most of their gear was lost," Lt. Col. Candis Olmstead, Alaska Air National Guard spokesperson, said in a release.

Their plan was to raft to the Lake Creek Lodge, but the father and son were injured, so the third person took the raft alone to get help, Olmstead said. But help didn't arrive for days due to terrain and water conditions, she said.

"The rapids were much stronger than usual, and due to excessive rain recently, water was in a flood state," Olmstead said.

LifeMed and Alaska State Troopers were unable to reach the rafters. That's when the state's Air National Guard stepped in, which sent an HC-130 King aircraft and a HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopter with a pararescue crew. Regal Air, a local bush air taxi and flightseeing company, also assisted with the rescue effort, Olmstead said.

The father and son were separately hoisted to the aircraft and taken to Mat-Su Regional Hospital, she said.

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The 130th Rescue Squadron out of Moffett Federal Airfield in Mountain View, California flew their aircraft and provided communications and refueling support during the mission. The Outside crew is in Alaska participating in Red Flag-Alaska exercises.

An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that the group was headed to the Lake Clark Lodge. They were headed to the Lake Creek Lodge. The previous version of the story also misspelled Moffett Federal Airfield.

Jerzy Shedlock

Jerzy Shedlock is a former reporter for Alaska Dispatch News. He left the ADN in 2017.

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