Thermal drone team joins search for missing hiker at Port Armstrong

A hiker has been missing near Port Armstrong since Monday. Search crews resumed operations Wednesday morning, adding a thermal drone team to the effort.

Alaska State Troopers said the man left for a hike the morning of Aug. 10 and planned to return by 4:30 p.m. When he did not return, colleagues searched by land and boat, then notified troopers. The dispatch does not name the man.

Formal search efforts began the morning of Aug. 11. The Alaska National Guard, Juneau Mountain Rescue, Alaska Wildlife Troopers, Sitka Fire Department Search and Rescue, SEADOGS and the U.S. Coast Guard took part. Troopers said extensive ground and aerial searches turned up no sign of the man. Crews stopped for the night at 8:20 p.m. Tuesday.

The search resumed Wednesday morning with the National Guard, the Alaska Rescue Coordination Center and the thermal drone team.

Drone technology has helped in at least one other recent Southeast search. An earlier Alaska News article on the Sunnahae Mountain search noted that the Klawock Search and Rescue team located 23-year-old Sean Joseph uninjured with a drone just before midnight on July 2, about two and a half hours after troopers were notified.

This account comes from the trooper dispatch alone. No other party is quoted in it.