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Petty Officer Aaron Bean repeatedly demonstrated his devotion to duty during the Motor Vessel Selendang Ayu rescue in December 2004. A newly minted Aviation Survival Technician Third Class (AST3) serving out of Kodiak, Alaska, this was Bean’s first search and rescue case; it took place during winter in the Bering Sea where 40-foot waves and freezing conditions are common. Under extremely adverse circumstances, Bean, Coast Guard helicopter crews and Cutter Alex Haley performed remarkably.
In late November 2004, the 738-foot Malaysian bulk carrier Selendang Ayu departed Seattle bound for China via the North Pacific Great Circle Route, which skirts the northern edge of the Aleutian Island chain. The ship carried over 60,000 tons of soybeans as well as 340,000 gallons of fuel oil. On December 6th, a week into the voyage, the ship ran into heavy seas. It suffered an engine failure in the Bering Sea north of Unalaska, located in the Aleutian Island chain, and radioed the Coast Guard for assistance.
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Within a day, Coast Guard Cutter Alex Haley arrived on scene to begin towing operations. Shortly afterwards, an ocean-going tug also arrived and took the heavily laden bulk carrier in tow. With high winds and heavy seas driving the crippled ship south, the two vessels could only slow its drift. Due to weather conditions, the towlines finally snapped, and the vessel drifted into the shallows off Spray Cape, Unalaska Island. The crew dropped anchor to avoid running aground off the island.
With the vessel at anchor, two Coast Guard helicopters arrived to evacuate the ship’s crew. Lowered from the Coast Guard HH-60 Jayhawk helicopter, CG-6020, to rescue nine crew members from the freighter, AST3 Bean and the 6020 aircrew delivered the men to the Haley with high waves bucking the cutter’s bow out of the water. They then delivered an additional nine men to shore at nearby Cold Bay.
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At this point, the rescuers tried to rest after their long ordeal. However, Selendang Ayu’s anchor failed to hold, and the ship drifted onto the shoals. The ship’s master requested evacuation of the remaining crewmembers, so the two helicopters had to return. The second responding HH-60, CG-6021, suffered a mechanical failure in its gearbox module, so it departed for Dutch Harbor to replace it, leaving behind eight crewmembers aboard the stricken freighter.
Arriving on the scene, the 6020 crew found that none of the Malay crewmembers were willing to get in the rescue basket unassisted. Meanwhile, the grounded freighter was being battered by giant waves. AST3 Bean was lowered to the ship, placed each man into the basket one by one, persuading them not to panic or get out. Meanwhile, Bean was falling on the slippery deck, fighting the sea and shocks from static electricity.
At 6:30 p.m., Bean and the ship’s master were the last men on board the vessel as thick fog rolled in followed by snow. At this point catastrophe struck. While 6020 hovered over Bean and the ship’s master standing on deck, a giant wave hit the helicopter and doused its engines. The helicopter crashed into the water sending rotor blades flying through the air. Bean assumed a defensive position and focused activating his emergency strobe light and calming the Malay captain, who did not swim. Next, Bean radioed the Haley, which was standing by a short distance from the shoals. The downed helicopter crewmembers inflated their vests and remained afloat in the heavy seas. Meanwhile, Haley’s own HH-65 Dolphin helicopter, CG-6513, managed to launch in the heavy weather and rescue the downed crew of the 6020, however, the Malay crewmembers went down with the helicopter.
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Bean had remained aboard the freighter nearly four hours protecting the ship’s captain and struggling with the frayed line to a life raft, which ultimately broke. After two hours, there was a deafening crack as the freighter began to break in two. Bean was stranded on the darkened sinking remnant of the bow, which was being crushed by the shoals, while the stern drifted away at a 35-degree angle.
Bean, who had been lowered to the ship’s deck without rescue gear or fins, clutched the captain and some exposed pipes. Meanwhile, he was showered by a cocktail of jet fuel and ship’s fuel coating the surrounding waters. The 6513 deployed from Haley, finally returned to rescue the two men, but had to pay out 175-feet of hoist line in the blizzard with its basket blowing sideways in the wind.
The irony is that Bean had never set foot on a ship before. It was not a bad performance for a first search and rescue effort. Bean’s devotion to duty earned him the Meritorious Service Medal.
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