| Incident | : Tug boat Sank |
| Date | : 12th September 2015 |
| Location | : Juneau’s Gastineau Channel |
| Casualties | : None |
At around 3 pm on Saturday 12th September 2015, a resident witnessed the tugboat Challenger, to have listed and noticed the vessel taking in water. It sank in a matter of minutes. Alerted Coast Guard’s of Sector Juneau immediately responded to the rescue call in Juneau’s Gastineau Channel.
Soon after the coast guard personnel arrived, a 400-feet of containment boom was deployed at the site. Only a minimal amount of oil sheen was found to be on board. Southeast Alaskan company Lighterage and Global Diving will evaluate and clear the pollution caused by the sunken tug.
Lt. Mickey Sanders, chief of incident management, Sector Juneau is quoted to have said, “Our priority is to minimize the environmental impact of the sinking while we work to establish ownership and plan for salvage, our responders are working with local contractors to safely remove this hazard to navigation from Gastineau Channel.”
The 96-foot tugboat Challenger was 1944 built ship that was launched as TP-126, a wood hulled tug/passenger boat for the U.S. Army. Later it was decommissioned and changed hands to various owners and its last owner was local artist R.D. Robinson, who purchased it in 2014.
Salvage operations and investigations are on.
Source: uscgnews
