Drones find stranded Craig hiker on Sunnahae Mountain before midnight

A 23-year-old hiker was found safe and uninjured on Sunnahae Mountain near Craig late Thursday after drone-assisted search teams located him before midnight.

Sean Joseph began his solo climb at 2 p.m. and sent a final text to family at 8:42 p.m. saying he was heading back down with a low phone battery. When he did not return home, his family called Craig Police Department. Troopers were notified at 9:26 p.m., deployed a FLIR thermal drone, and hiked up the mountain alongside ground teams. The Klawock Search and Rescue team, a nonprofit volunteer organization serving the Prince of Wales Island area, located Joseph using their own drone at 11:47 p.m. All search personnel were accounted for.

The rescue reflects how remote Alaska communities depend on volunteer search and rescue groups working alongside state agencies. The Alaska Search and Rescue Association supports those groups statewide. "Our mission is to support the volunteer organizations that perform search and rescue efforts across the state of Alaska," the organization says. A 2019 incident near Klawock, in which the Coast Guard, Alaska State Troopers, and Klawock Search and Rescue jointly assisted two missing hunters, illustrates the multi-agency cooperation that remote terrain routinely demands. National search and rescue organizations caution that technology such as drones should not replace wilderness preparedness and risk management.