After a day of scouring the waters around Hydaburg, the Coast Guard suspended its search for a 20-year-old man Saturday.
The man, Frances Charles, didn’t return from a fish camp in Eek Point on Thursday afternoon. Hydaburg Search and Rescue crews found Charles’ 18-foot skiff near California Island and found a pair of boots in the water near Blanket Island.
The Coast Guard began its search Friday, dispatching a Coast Guard Air Station Sitka MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew as well as the crews of the USCG cutters John McCormick and Anacapa. Nicholas Meyer, a Sector Juneau command duty officer, said in a release that the Coast Guard searched more than 180 square miles in search of Charles.
“We search for every missing person as if we were searching for our own,” said Capt. Shannan Greene in the release. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends.”
As Petty Officer Bill Colclough said Monday, a search is typically suspended if crews “saturate a search area several times over” and don’t find anything. That was the case this time, as no further trace of Charles was found. This isn’t necessarily the end of the Coast Guard’s search for Charles, Colclough said.
“If the person is reported to be in the water and they’ve survived, we could resume the search and go rescue them,” Colclough said. “We could assist another agency, or another agency could assist us in that situation.”
Charles’ case is not an uncommon one, Colclough said. The Coast Guard gets reports from time to time of boaters who didn’t return when planned. While some situations are merely the boater changing his or her plans without telling family, some situations are much more serious.
Boaters are encouraged to have a plan ready and do what they can to stick to it, Colclough said. This saves time for rescue crews as well, as they know where to start and what kind of boat to look for if there’s a plan in place. The Coast Guard doesn’t know if Charles had a written plan or not.
Filling out a USCG Float Plan is the best approach, Colclough said, as this pre-prepared document gathers all the pertinent info about a boater’s trip.
“It’s extremely important to file a float plan with your families, friends and relatives,” Colclough said. “It provides vital info on the vessel, when you left, when you expected to be back, and so forth.”
• Contact reporter Alex McCarthy at alex.mccarthy@juneauempire.com.
Coast Guard Cutter John McCormick was one of two Coast Guard vessels to search for missing Hydaburg man Frances Charles on June 23. The search was suspended the next day after no trace of Charles was found. (Photo courtesy of the United States Coast Guard)
