The state of Alaska depends on its general aviation civilian air fleet to guarantee mobility and communication in the state’s vast wilderness. The frequency of flights and the difficulty of the terrain makes air travel uniquely perilous in the northern state. Now the state’s authorities have launched a search for a small plane that recently went missing with three people aboard.
Shortly before 7:30 PM on Saturday the 20th, State Troopers in Alaska received a U.S. Coast Guard report of a missing flight, according to a statement issued by the state’s Department of Public Safety.
Shannon Kearney, speaking on behalf of the Coast Guard, said that her agency received the initial call about the overdue flight at approximately 5:40 PM Saturday afternoon. Twenty minutes later, the agency sent out a marine broadcast, and at around 7:00 PM dispatched a Cutter Reef Shark vessel to search for evidence of a downed plane.
Later in the evening, they dispatched a C139 from Kodiak and an MH-60T helicopter from Sitka, and roped in the Alaskan State Troopers and the Alaska Rescue Coordination Center to assist with the effort.
The missing plane, a 1948 single-prop Beach Craft Bonanza, seems to have been flying in the vicinity of Southeast Alaska’s Mount Crillon—part of the Saint Elias Mountain range—when it went missing with its pilot and two passengers. The disappearance wasn’t noticed until the plane failed to arrive as scheduled at its destination in Yakutat, a small outpost around 275 miles southwest of Juneau, the state capitol. The flight had originally departed from the Juneau airport.
Current search efforts are concentrated on the area around the Fairweather Mountain Range.
Mike Salerno said that, as of the public announcement of the disappearance, authorities do not know the identity of those individuals aboard. He has asked that anyone flying the route between Yakutat and Juneau who notices anything out of the ordinary contact the Coast Guard immediately.
