By Yereth Rosen
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – The U.S. Coast Guard scoured the waters off Kodiak Island on Wednesday in search of a Alaska Native leader who abruptly quit his executive positions and went missing in his helicopter after being accused of sexual misconduct.
Andy Teuber, former president of the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC), the largest tribal health organization in the United States, disappeared after piloting a chopper on Tuesday afternoon from Anchorage.
The helicopter never reached its destination, Kodiak, in the western Gulf of Alaska, and the Coast Guard launched a search. Teuber was flying alone.
Searchers on Tuesday evening found some debris in the water northeast of Kodiak Island, but it was not immediately clear whether it came from Teuber’s aircraft, Coast Guard spokeswoman Lexie Preston said Wednesday.
The Coast Guard search was being conducted Wednesday by a helicopter crew, and a cutter vessel was en route to assist, she said.
Teuber departed Anchorage the same day that the Anchorage Daily News published a story detailing sexual misconduct allegations levied against him by a former employee.
The woman, according to the account, described a pattern of sexual coercion in a letter sent last week to ANTHC management. Teuber denied the allegations, saying the relationship was consensual, the newspaper reported
In addition to resigning from the tribal health consortium, which he led for over a decade, Teuber resigned his positions as a University of Alaska regent and as an Alaska Federation of Natives board member.
ANTHC is the nation’s largest tribal health network with over 3,000 employees serving 180,000 people in Alaska, according to its website. The Alaska Federation of Natives is the state’s largest indigenous organization.
Teuber is the latest in a series of prominent Alaska leaders who have resigned after being accused of sexual misconduct or harassment, including a former lieutenant governor, two state attorneys general and a mayor of Anchorage.
(Reporting by Yereth Rosen in Anchorage, Alaska; Editing by Steve Gorman and Alistair Bell)
