Guardian Flight prepares to end search for missing plane crew

Air ambulance company Guardian Flight says it has not been able to find the three crew members who went missing after a crash of the company’s plane in Southeast Alaska in January.

A statement on the company’s website on March 27 says the search for the pilot, flight nurse and paramedic lost in the Jan. 29 crash is winding down. Guardian Flight does plan a helicopter search of the shoreline for any remaining pieces of the aircraft that may have washed ashore.

“This is a very sad time for us and our team, the families of our friends who died in this tragedy, and for everyone associated with flying patients in need of a higher level of care,” Guardian Flight’s Randy Lyman writes in the statement.

The plane was flying from Anchorage to Kake to pick up a patient when it went down in the waters of Frederick Sound. Searchers were able to recover the cockpit voice recorder and other parts of the plane. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash.

Lyman says Guardian Flight is planning a memorial in Juneau sometime within the next few months.

KFSK - Petersburg

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