Coast Guard ends its hunt for helicopter

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The U.S. Coast Guard on Wednesday suspended the search in waters off Alaska for an overdue helicopter piloted by the former head of Alaska’s largest tribal health care organization.

Andy Teuber, 52, former head of the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, resigned last week after allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced against him.

He left Anchorage about 2 p.m. Tuesday in a Robinson R66 helicopter en route to Kodiak Island, the Coast Guard said in a statement.

The Coast Guard was contacted about three hours later by family when he didn’t arrive in Kodiak, about 250 miles south of Anchorage.

“After an extensive search with our available assets resulting in inconclusive findings, it’s with a heavy heart that we have to suspend this search pending any new information. I offer my deepest condolences to those affected by this incident,” Cmdr. Matthew Hobbie, the Coast Guard search and rescue coordinator, said in a statement.

Coast Guard Petty Officer Lexie Preston said ending searches is based upon weather, water temperatures and the survivability rate of the missing person.

Preston said that planes searching for Teuber on Tuesday found a debris field in the Gulf of Alaska, about 65 miles northeast of Kodiak.

But she said searchers could not “confirm that was that helicopter.” Crews searching Wednesday did not locate the debris, Preston said.

Teuber owns the helicopter, which is used for sightseeing and charter trips through his company, Kodiak Helicopters LLC, according to state records.

His former assistant described a pattern of abusive behavior, harassment and coerced sexual counters by Teuber in a three-page letter to consortium officials. She resigned the same day.