Pilot killed, passenger hurt in plane crash near Beluga Lake

She tracked the route of Sunday afternoon's flight from a laptop, a GPS beacon broadcasting the small plane's location every few minutes. Hudok saw as the Cessna 150 carrying pilot Timothy Hudok and another man took off from Lake Hood and stopped about three miles west of Beluga Lake.

That alone wasn't a cause for alarm. A lifelong Alaskan and longtime pilot, Hudok had hunted ptarmigan in the area below the Tordrillo Mountains, northwest of Anchorage, many times before, Lisa Hudok said in a phone interview today.

But as the hours ticked by, the signal never moved.

At 8 p.m., more than six hours after Hudok's 1:33 departure time from Anchorage, Lisa dialed the FAA and reported the overdue plane.

"It was an indication that there could be a problem," she said. "I wasn't convinced that there was one but I wanted to follow up."

At 11:40 p.m., an Alaska State Troopers helicopter found the crash site at Triumvirate Glacier, near the lake, troopers said. Timothy Hudok, 45, was dead.

It was at least the second accident in the area this year. The Alaska Air National Guard rescued a U.S. Forest Service employee after his Piper PA-18 Super Cub crashed there in March.

The accident on Sunday seriously injured passenger Robert Goodwill, 44, of North Carolina, who was flown to Anchorage for treatment, troopers said. Goodwill was in critical condition Monday at Providence Alaska Medical Center, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Goodwill had worked with Hudok at FedEx and is visiting Alaska, Lisa Hudok said.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the cause of the crash.

A senior aircraft mechanic at FedEx, Hudok grew up in a family of pilots, his wife said. He made his first solo flight at age 16 and would fly with her once or twice a week when the weather was nice.

Tim liked going to avionics shows, she said. He drove the speed limit -- "he was conscientious and law-abiding" -- and paid attention to detail. He liked working around the house.

Lisa knew they would marry on their second date, she said, when Tim took her walking at Beluga Point with his dog Kokomo.

"He was sweet every day," she said.

In lieu of flowers, Hudok's family asks that donations be made to St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., Lisa Hudok said.

Contact reporter Kyle Hopkins at khopkins@adn.com or call 257-4334.