The weekend rescue of more than 20 seal hunters from the ice near Barrow was one of the largest responses ever conducted by the North Slope Borough's search and rescue squad, but it went smoothly with no reports of injuries, said Hugh Patkotak, a helicopter pilot and the group's director.
"As long as the lives are saved that's our primary responsibility and I feel good about it," he said Monday after the action had slowed. "I'm sorry for the hunters that went out during that period, but the winds and currents are to be taken into serious consideration."
Winds from the southwest are always cause for concern, he said.
When initial reports came in on Friday, Patkotak understood that more than 20 boats were caught up in ice that had closed in after the wind shifted direction, preventing hunters from returning to Barrow.
In the end, 26 people were rescued from about eight boats. They had motored onto flat pieces of ice that were large enough to allow the search and rescue group's Bell 412 helicopter to land.
The first lift came Friday night, when a few young people were rescued.
On that flight came at least one 7-year-old, Kamron Rexford, who'd gone seal hunting with two uncles, said his father, Vernon Rexford.
The remaining hunters were not immediately requesting help, and waited out the night on the ice, said Patkotak. They hoped the ice pack would open again, giving them a path to the coast.
But there was still no way out early Saturday. That morning, hunters called for help and the larger rescue began, said Patkotak.
The helicopter made several trips, requiring about four hours to ferry everyone to safety.
The ice pans the boats and hunters were on moved about 20 miles overnight with the coastline currents headed northeast, testament to the power of the waters outside Barrow, he said.
"It was textbook," he said of the rescue. "We worked hand in hand with Volunteer Search and Rescue."
The work continued through Saturday, as pilots sought the chance to pinpoint the location of the abandoned boats, so they could notify search and rescue volunteers and others looking to recover their gear.
By early Sunday morning, five boats had been recovered by whaling captain Crawford Patkotak and some of his crewmembers.
A larger rescue came sometime in the late 1990s, when a large section of ice broke away from the shorefast ice, taking hunters with it, Patkotak said.
The limitations of the Bell helicopter - it can't fly in icing conditions - did not come into play during the rescue, Patkotak said.
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