Alaska Bush Pilot Community Rallies to Find, Rescue Family Whose Plane Crash-Landed on Frozen Lake

Yahoo26-03-2025

Alaska's tight-knit community of bush pilots came together in a big way this week to help save one of their own. Thanks to their coordination and efforts, the Alaska National Guard was able to rescue a missing pilot and his two daughters, who'd crashed into a frozen lake on the Kenai Peninsula Sunday night. They'd spent around 12 hours on one of the wings of the partially submerged plane by the time the airborne cavalry arrived, according to the Associated Press.
The National Guard confirmed with Alaska's News Source that the pilot and his daughters were rescued from the half-sunken plane around 10:30 a.m. Monday, and taken directly to a hospital, where they were treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
The plane was first reported missing around 10:30 p.m. Sunday by the pilot's father, John Morris. This kicked off a series of social media posts by family friends and other concerned locals, some of whom joined the effort to search in their own planes Monday morning.
'I'm proud of the guys that stepped up and went out and helped out,' a family friend and one of the original posters, Scott Holmes, told reporters. 'My daughter told me there was 420 shares on my post.'
Terry Godes, of Soldotna, was 'one of the guys,' and the pilot who first got eyes on the crashed plane. Godes tells Outdoor Life that he'd seen another Facebook post by his friend Leonard Perry late Sunday night. Perry asked anyone who was able to help search for the missing plane to rally at first light on Monday.
'He is a friend of mine, and if he asks for help on a search, and I'm available, I'm in,' says Godes, who flies a special kind of Super Cub, a StolQuest 2. 'So I contacted him Monday morning to coordinate our flights.'
Read Next: The Bush Plane Engine Died Mid-Flight — and Other Close Calls While Flying the Alaskan Wilderness
The missing pilot and his daughters, who have not been identified, were reportedly on a sightseeing trip from Soldotna to Skilak Lake when their Piper PA-12 Super Cruiser went down Sunday evening. Tustumena Lake, which sits at the foot of Tustumena Glacier, was their last known cellular location, according to Dale Eicher, another local pilot who was involved in the search and shared details with ANS.
'There were half a dozen other [pilots] that were in the air between Skilak and Tustumena,' Godes says of the coordinated search. 'I was just the guy that saw the plane first.'
He told the AP he was heartbroken when he first saw the wreckage. Then Godes saw the three figures on the wing waving at him, and he immediately radioed in their location. Eicher, who heard the call on his radio and was still in cell range (unlike Godes), relayed the GPS coordinates to the Alaska State Troopers. The Troopers then coordinated with the National Guard, which sent out a C-130 transport plane and a rescue helicopter.
'The C-130 guys and the ones in the chopper should really get the credit,' Godes says. 'They had to come up with a non-standard recovery because the ice was too soft to land on, and the rotor wash threatened to blow the children off their safe perch on the wing.
Read Next: This Happened to Me: I Should Have Died in a Floatplane Crash
'They performed a flawless, one-off recovery,' he adds. 'Those guys are solid!'

Hashtags

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

B-2 bombers involved in US strike on Iran nuclear facilities return to Missouri Air Force base

San Francisco Chronicle

8 hours ago

San Francisco Chronicle

B-2 bombers involved in US strike on Iran nuclear facilities return to Missouri Air Force base

KNOB NOSTER, Mo. (AP) — The B-2 stealth bombers that dropped massive bunker-buster bombs on Iranian nuclear facilities began returning to their U.S. base in Missouri on Sunday. An Associated Press journalist watched on a clear but windy afternoon as seven of the B-2 Spirit bombers came in for landing at Whiteman Air Force Base. The base, about 73 miles (117 kilometers) southeast of Kansas City, is home to the 509th Bomb Wing, the only U.S. military unit that operates the B-2 Spirit bombers. The first group of four of the stealth aircraft did a loop around the base before approaching a runway from the north, while a final group of three arrived within 10 minutes. The day before, the B-2s had been part of a wide-ranging plan involving deception and decoys to deliver what American military leaders believe is a knockout blow to a nuclear program that Israel views as an existential threat and has been pummeling for more than a week. According to U.S. officials, one group of the stealth aircraft headed west from the base in the U.S. heartland on Saturday, intended as a decoy to throw off the Iranians. Another flight of seven quietly flew off eastward, ultimately engaging in the Iran mission. Aided by an armada of refueling tankers and fighter jets — some of which launched their own weapons — U.S. pilots dropped 14 30,000-pound bombs early Sunday local time on two key underground uranium enrichment plants in Iran. U.S. officials said Iran neither detected the inbound fusillade, nor mustered a shot at the stealthy American jets. Dubbed Operation Midnight Hammer, the mission carried out a 'precision strike' that 'devastated the Iranian nuclear program,' U.S. officials said, even as they acknowledged an assessment was ongoing. For its part, Iran denied that any significant damage had been done, and the Islamic Republic pledged to retaliate.

Associated Press

9 hours ago

Associated Press

Armani's global aesthetic shines

The Associated Press is an independent global news organization dedicated to factual reporting. Founded in 1846, AP today remains the most trusted source of fast, accurate, unbiased news in all formats and the essential provider of the technology and services vital to the news business. More than half the world's population sees AP journalism every day.

Hundreds protest in The Hague against NATO, military spending and possible conflict with Iran