Alaska State Troopers said Monday night that an employee missing from the Chena Hot Springs Resort had been found after searchers spotted a make-shift flag from the air.
Shortly before 6:30 p.m. a helicopter spotted the flag in the search area, according to an updated dispatch posted online. A troopers helicopter returned to the spot after refueling and located the missing man, 19-year-old Anatoliy Balko.
Balko was flown to the hot springs and searchers are returning from the field, troopers said.
An air and ground search started Monday for Balko, who embarked from the resort on a weekend hike. He was reported missing Sunday after he didn't return from his planned trip.
"Anatoliy had left the resort at approximately (9:30 a.m.) Friday morning and was going to hike to Far Mountain and back to the resort via Charlie Dome," troopers wrote. "The hike is approximately 30 miles in length. Anatoliy was supposed to be at work at (9 a.m.) Sunday morning and has not shown up."
Ground searchers with Interior Alaska Wilderness Search and Rescue, supported by a trooper helicopter and a drone operated by the University of Alaska Fairbanks, searched for Balko.
Chena Hot Springs Resort owner Bernie Karl said Balko, a resident of Washington state, signed on with the resort's activity staff about three months ago.
Three other employees returned from a hike to Far Mountain at about 5 a.m. Monday but "hadn't seen hide nor hair" of Balko, Karl said. Search dogs were accompanying ground teams looking for him Monday.
Cathy Cahill, director of UAF's Alaska Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration, said a three-person team — a pilot, a payload manager and an observer — were sent to the Chena site with one of the center's smaller drones, a hexacopter carrying a thermal infrared camera.
"We are up at Chena Hot Springs, and we're prepared to fly if the winds die down," Cahill said earlier Monday. "Right now, the winds are too high to fly the drones safely."
UAF spokeswoman Marmian Grimes said the university's drones were deployed in response to a request from troopers on Thursday, during a search for an 11-year-old boy reported missing but later found by a motorist.
Grimes said drone operators were able to rapidly respond to that request, due to UAF being one of six study sites for domestic drone operations named by the Federal Aviation Administration in 2013.
"They were able to get those things in the air real quick," Grimes said.