Update 9 p.m.:
The Coast Guard and partner agencies that have been looking for a missing plane bound for Yakutat called off the search late Monday evening.
The plane, owned by longtime Haines pilot Sam Wright and carrying Yakutat couple Hans Munich and Tanya Hutchins, stopped emitting its radar signal near Mount Crillon at the southern end of the Fairweather Mountain Range.
The three left Juneau on Saturday and were reported overdue that evening. Both Wright and Munich are pilots with decades of experience flying in Southeast Alaska.
Coast Guard public affairs officer Mike Salerno said if the agency got more information, it could resume its search.
“The decision to suspend is never easy,” he said. “Our condolences are with the family members of the passengers on board.”
Original story:
A Haines man and a couple flying from Juneau to Yakutat are missing after their plane never arrived at its destination.
Coast Guard public affairs officer Mike Salerno said the owner and operator of the missing 1948 Beechcraft Bonanza is Samuel “Sam” Wright of Haines. Wright was flying two passengers Hans Munich and Tanya Hutchins to their home in Yakutat on Saturday but the plane never made it.
Munich and Hutchins own Coastal Air Service – formerly Yakutat Coastal Airlines – where Munich has been flying for decades. Wright is also an experienced pilot with decades of flying in Southeast Alaska.
The Coast Guard, Alaska Rescue Coordination Center, Civil Air Patrol and Alaska State Troopers are entering their third day of searching for signs of the missing plane in the Fairweather Mountain Range.
“A Coast Guard helicopter from Air Station Sitka, Coast Guard HC-130 from Air Station Kodiak, and also Coast Guard Cutter Reef Shark were all dispatched to the scene on Saturday evening when we received the alert,” Salerno said. “Then Sunday and today’s efforts have included searches from aircraft … MH-60T helicopters, HC-130s and as well as AC-130s from the Air Force and also search assets from the Civil Air Patrol.”
The plane stopped emitting its radar signal near Mount Crillon, which is at the southern end of the range, according to the Coast Guard.
“[It’s] where we saw the FlightAware tracks end,” Salerno said. “We’ve also been in contact with the FAA, the National Transportation Safety Board as well to try to leverage as many resources as we can to try to narrow down the search area.”
Narrowing down the search area isn’t the only problem searchers are running into.
“It’s a very mountainous area, the flight tracking stops at around 10,000 feet which also makes it a difficult search area for some of our search assets, especially with the cloud coverage,” Salerno said. “I can tell you that at that altitude the search assets have been encountering a lot of cloud coverage.”
Weather conditions for the search region are expected to deteriorate. According to the National Weather Service showers showers and heavy rain are expected to move into the region, reducing visibility and bringing wind gusts and lower cloud ceilings Monday evening.
“The weather is a factor, but it isn’t the only factor,” Salerno said. “The altitude combined with the cloud cover is impacting visual searching.”
Searchers are also listening for the plane’s emergency beacon, he said.
As of about 5 p.m. Monday evening, the search was ongoing according to a Coast Guard social media page.
But, it’s not clear how much longer they’ll keep looking, that’s a discussion crews are having now. Salerno said a lot of things go into that decision-making process including the weather, the location of the search area and how large it is.
“Also, we never discount the will to live of any individual,” he said.
Correction: A previous version of this story contained a typo indicating that the Coast Guard was operating an AC-130. That plane comes from the Air Force, the Coast Guard is instead operating HC-130s. Both are being used in the search.
KHNS reporter Alain D’Epresmenil contributed to this story.
