2 survive plunge under ice in Arctic, days without food

FAIRBANKS, Alaska — A father and son on an Arctic rafting expedition survived a plunge under river ice and five days without food or supplies, rescuers said.

Blake Stanfield, a Seward, Alaska, physician, and his father, Neil, of Oklahoma City, were found "starving and tired and exhausted" before being flown out of the wilderness early Wednesday by an Army helicopter, said 1st Lt. Wesley Madden, an Army pilot.

Shelly Stanfield, wife of the 38-year-old doctor, was waiting for her husband to return home yesterday. She first learned of the ordeal when he called her Wednesday morning, two days before he was due to come home from the trip. Blake Stanfield told his wife his feet were torn up from hiking for days without shoes to look for help.

The pair and their raft were sucked under a large patch of ice near the Arctic Circle, about 65 miles northeast of the town of Bettles, Madden said. The men told rescuers they were trapped under about 30 feet of water on the North Fork of the Koyukuk River before surfacing in a break in the ice.

They were eventually swept into ice-free water, but most of their supplies were lost.

Four days later, a bush pilot spotted the younger Stanfield and returned with another pilot. The two located the men and supplied coordinates that enabled the Army helicopter to retrieve the Stanfields.

The Stanfields were found to have no serious medical problems.