Alaska News

Woman dies when boat with family aboard capsizes near Fairbanks

A 40-year-old woman from Central died Sunday on a family boating trip near that Interior Alaska community, Alaska State Troopers say.

Candi Hendrickson and her husband, 41-year-old Jacob Hendrickson, were boating on Birch Creek with their 6- and 14-year-old children when the boat capsized, troopers said Monday.

Troopers said they got the report that Jacob Hendrickson and the children were stranded and Candi Hendrickson was missing just before 4:45 p.m. Sunday.

The aluminum riverboat with an inboard motor hit a riverbank on a turn and flipped, troopers spokesman Austin McDaniel said in an email Tuesday. Candi Hendrickson became trapped beneath the boat, while Jacob Hendrickson and the two children were thrown out.

Jacob Hendrickson and the children made it to the bank, where they were rescued, McDaniel said. They were about 10 miles east of Central, he said.

A troopers helicopter as well as a pilot from Central responded, troopers said. The Super Cub pilot spotted the man and children but couldn’t land and pick them up. Local search parties rescued the trio and found Candi Hendrickson dead in the creek, troopers said.

Birch Creek winds more than 125 miles from near Fairbanks down into the Yukon Flats country near Central, a community of about 60 people.

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