The radio call said only one thing: a teen was alive on an overturned skiff after nearly three days at sea

The first clear sign came from the air: a 15-year-old boy in a bright yellow jacket, crouched on top of an overturned skiff in the Bering Sea. By the time a fishing vessel reached him, he had spent nearly three days clinging to the capsized boat, and his family was listening for news over the radio.

A yellow jacket on top of an upside down boat

Video from the rescue shows a scene that is hard to forget. A teenager in a luminous yellow jacket is kneeling on an upturned skiff in rough, cold water near Alaska's St. Lawrence Island. Crew members aboard the fishing vessel Northwest Explorer throw him a line, pull the skiff closer and bring him into a rescue basket.

The boy, 15, had survived nearly three days in the Bering Sea after the small craft overturned, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. He was found about four miles east of St. Lawrence Island, a remote island in the Bering Sea that lies roughly 100 miles west of mainland Alaska and about 40 miles from Russia's Chukchi Peninsula. One account described the island as closer to Russia than to mainland America.

A Coast Guard air crew spotted him on Monday morning. Lt. Cmdr. Jonathon Resch, the pilot who located the teen, said he happened to be looking out the window at the right angle of sun when he saw the survivor's raft. Before the fishing vessel reached the scene, the air crew dropped a raft and provisions.

The rescue itself unfolded on Monday, though the Coast Guard announced it on Wednesday. By then, the basic outline was already astonishing. A teenage boy had stayed alive on top of a capsized boat in frigid water for days, long enough for search crews and a passing fishing vessel to reach him.

Resch said his team was "elated" to find him. He also put the odds in blunt terms: "People don't survive those scenarios. People don't flip boats and survive nights."

The trip that did not end when it was supposed to

The Coast Guard said the group had left on Friday and was expected back early Sunday. When they did not return, relatives reported the trio missing on Sunday evening, and a search operation began on Monday morning.

That search drew in multiple agencies and aircraft. The Coast Guard said the effort involved Coast Guard planes and helicopters, the Alaska Rescue Coordination Center, the Alaska Air National Guard, Alaska State Troopers and local authorities. Federal, state and village first responders all took part, according to Coast Guard Arctic District commander Rear Adm. Bob Little.

Officials did not release the identities of those involved. What they did confirm was that the teenager had not been alone on the boat. His brother and a cousin were also aboard when the craft overturned.

The survivor was found on an overturned skiff after what the captain of the Northwest Explorer believed had been nearly three days gripping onto the boat. Adam White, the fishing vessel's captain, summed up the endurance in a short remark after the rescue: "That's one tough kid."

St. Lawrence Island is isolated even by Alaska standards, and the detail matters in understanding the scale of what happened. The boy was not found near a busy harbor or along a crowded coast. He was spotted in open Bering Sea waters off a remote island, in conditions cold enough for rescuers to immediately recognize signs of hypothermia once he was brought aboard.

What he told the crew after they got him aboard

The teenager was showing symptoms of hypothermia when he reached the Northwest Explorer. White said his crew tried to warm him with blankets and hot packs.

Even while shivering, the boy was able to explain what had happened to the others on the boat. White said that, through chattering teeth, the teen said his brother was still under the skiff. He also said his cousin had slipped away the night before the rescue.

The Coast Guard later confirmed that the boy's brother and cousin had died. Another account identified them as his 16-year-old brother and their 39-year-old cousin. Their bodies were recovered after the teenager was taken to safety.

The boy was the only survivor.

The detail of what he told rescuers gives the story a much harsher edge than the rescue video alone suggests. The footage captures only the final minutes, with a rope, a basket and a successful recovery. By the time that sequence was recorded, the teenager had already spent days on the overturned hull, had already endured the cold long enough to be in distress, and had already lost the two family members who had been on the boat with him.

The family heard the rescue over the radio

While rescuers searched and then closed in, members of the boy's family were following what they could from shore. According to a family member, the teen's mother was listening to a radio transmission of the rescue on Monday while other relatives gathered around a speakerphone.

Then came the call they had been waiting for.

"We all cried and jumped for joy when the captain announced on the radio, 'We found a kid, he's alive, he's alive,'" the family member said. The relief lasted only a moment before another question followed: "Then we asked, 'Where's the rest of them?'"

That split second, celebration colliding with dread, may be the clearest way to understand the whole episode. It ended with one life saved, and with two deaths the Coast Guard described as tragic.

In his statement, Little thanked the crew of the Northwest Explorer and the many partner agencies that helped in the operation. "We are grateful for the incredible efforts of the motor vessel Northwest Explorer, federal, state, village first responders and mission partners who assisted in the effort that resulted in a life saved," he said.

What remains is a rescue that even experienced Coast Guard personnel spoke about with disbelief. A pilot said people do not usually survive a capsized boat through the night, let alone multiple nights. A fishing captain looked at the teenager who had made it through and called him tough. And for one family listening over the radio, the moment everything changed was carried in a few urgent words from the water: one kid had been found alive.