Bush Pilot

Alaska plane crash survivors recount ordeal

The Mat-Su Frontiersman has posted a lengthy account of the plane crash and subsequent rescue of four people four miles off Kalgin Island in Alaska's Cook Inlet. Pilot Scott Johannes, along with his wife Karis and their friends Doug and Jill Warner, recount their ordeal when the engine of their Cessna 185 suddenly dropped to an idle and they were forced to make an emergency landing into the waters of Cook Inlet. According to the article, Johannes kept his head as they came down in the choppy waters, even as the float struts snapped and the plane began to sink. All aboard grabbed life jackets and clung to the plane after lashing the struts back to the aircraft with a rope. The group waited in the water for an hour before they began to worry that their SPOT emergency signal hadn't been heard, before Johannes said a satellite phone floated by. After attempting to explain their location to an operator in Canada -- which they'd been routed to by calling information -- they unsuccessfully attempted to call numerous friends and family before finally getting a hold of State Troopers in Soldotna.

After that, the real rescue began, according to the article. Alaska Wildlife Trooper Shane Stephenson attempted to lift the survivors out of the water by hovering close to the surging waves, but was eventually forced to land on Kalgin Island and seek help from the commercial setnetters who lived there. They were finally able to pull the four from the water and back to Kalgin Island. The plane sank into the waters. Read much, much more detail on the rescue, and a possible explanation for why the plane slipped back to idle, at the Frontiersman.

Craig Medred

Craig Medred is a former writer for the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Dispatch and Alaska Dispatch News. He left the ADN in 2015.

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