Rural Alaska

Helicopter lifts 3 men off ice floe drifting off Nome

NOME - Three men were rescued from an ice floe that broke loose from shore ice outside Nome.

Alaska State Troopers say 43-year-old John Culp Jr., 33-year-old James Gibson and 45-year-old Phillip Rode were plucked off the ice by helicopter. Their hometowns were not immediately available.

Troopers just before 6:30 p.m. Sunday took a call about the men on the floe.

The ice broke off the main ice shelf along a beach and drifted slowly into the Bering Sea.

Nome Search and Rescue at the time was responding to a person injured on a snowmachine but coordinated the rescue of the men on the ice.

No one was injured.

ADVERTISEMENT