Divers Can’t Find Copter’s Recorder

Commercial divers searched futilely last week for the black box of a Coast Guard helicopter that crashed into the Bering Sea while it was trying to rescue the crew of a grounded freighter.

The divers searched near the freighter’s stern Friday after they heard signals coming from the helicopter’s data recorder.

“They could hear it pinging, but they just couldn’t find it,” said Coast Guard Petty Officer Sarah Francis.

The divers planned another recovery attempt at the next break in the weather, which may be Tuesday.

The helicopter crashed with 10 people on board. Four were rescued by another helicopter, but six crew members from the freighter were lost at sea.

The wreckage of the helicopter later washed ashore, covered with oil.

Officials hope to recover the recorder to discover why the aircraft crashed.

The Selendang Ayu was split in two after running aground Dec. 8 in the Aleutian Islands. The 738-foot freighter was carrying soybeans, fuel oil and diesel.

The bow section has sunk almost out of view, and the 176,000 gallons of oil in that section are presumed lost. The grounding cleaved the ship where an additional 40,000 gallons of fuel had been stored.

The slow leaks and rough Bering Sea have kept the spilled fuel from forming a slick large enough to effectively use an offshore skimmer or chemical dispersants, Francis said.

A response team of state and federal agencies has approved the use of chemical dispersants to break up the oil. But Francis said the dispersants were most effective in concentrated areas of oil, and responders are hesitant to use the chemicals at the site of the wreck, which is near habitats that support marine life.