HOMER, Alaska — The search for the Troy family who has been lost at sea after their boat capsized off the coast of Homer, Alaska will continue this week.
The Alaska Dive Search Rescue and Recovery Team announced Monday, Aug. 12 they will continue their search on Wednesday, Aug. 14, if weather permits.
Weather conditions in that area forced them to pause their search previously
"As much as we want to bring closure to family, friends and community of the missing, we will not take unnecessary risks, that may add to the tragedy and have our families morning our loss," the volunteer team posted on Facebook. "If risks can be mitigated, we will do what we can, if the risk cannot be mitigated we will not continue."
6 News spoke to Austin McDaniel, Communications Director for the Alaska Department of Public Safety for updates on the search for the missing Troy family.
"Due to really strong currents and really horrible weather and sea conditions, there hasn't been a safe environment for them to work to locate, potentially recover the vessel and any missing persons that they find as well," McDaniel said.
McDaniel gave insight in to what could have happened to the Troy family when their boat capsized.
"We have a lot of big waterways, we have a lot of extreme terrain," he said. "And that coupled with extreme weather, and folks maybe not wearing personal floatation devices or not being familiar with their equipment can unfortunately lead to a number of drownings that happen every year all across the state."
The rescue recovery team will be using a sidescan sonar submersible to aid in the search, which will scan the ocean floor using sonar, according to McDaniel. The submersible sits underneath the water and sends a signal back to a computer that goes through and creates a image of what the bottom of the ocean looks like in that specific area. The rescue team can additionally deploy what's known as a sector scan sonar, a sonar that it's that dropped down to the ocean floor and searches from the ocean floor with that same sonar image. They can also deploy what's known as remote operated vehicle, essentially an underwater drone to inspect that area a little bit more closely.
McDaniel confirmed they have spoke to the driver of the vessel who survived, but did not give details on the conversation.
"We have investigators who are trained in boating fatalities that have world class training," McDaniel said. "Hopefully once they recover the vessel, we will get a little bit more information of what potentially caused this very tragic accident."
McDaniel assured that they will be putting out more information once they have something to confirm and they remain in contact with the survivors and family.
"We're hoping to recover the vessel that will provide some hopefully some additional insight as to as to what occurred," he said.
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