Helo Was Ferrying Crew From Disabled Freighter

A Coast Guard HH-60 Jayhawk was reported down Wednesday, as it ferried crew members from a disabled Malaysian freighter in the Bering Straits. Four people on board the ill-fated chopper were rescued by a nearby Coast Guard cutter. Six others are still missing in the frigid Alaskan waters.

The Selendang Ayu, carrying more than 422,000 gallons of heavy bunker oil and a load of soy beans, had been drifting without power since Tuesday. After the HH-60 went down Wednesday, the freighter ran aground on Unalaska Island and broke apart.

A spokeswoman for the Coast Guard told the Canadian Broadcasting Company that the Jayhawk (file photo of type on maneuvers in Alaska, above) had rescued 19 of the 26 people on board the doomed freighter before the aircraft went down in the icy waters. The rescue effort was reportedly hampered by high winds -- a factor cited by the USCG in the HH-60 crash.

Authorities estimated those in the water could survive about three hours before succumbing to hypothermia. It wasn't immediately clear whether those missing were members of the freighter crew or the Coast Guard.

FMI: www.uscg.mil