Three men walked away unharmed from a plane crash northwest of Port Alsworth Tuesday after their aircraft ran out of fuel mid-flight.
Rocky McElveen owns a lodge, Alaskan Adventures, on the Holitna River. He and two of his staff members had flown a load of supplies out to the lodge with plans to return to Lake Clark, he said Wednesday. Mark McNeill, 61, of Oklahoma was piloting the Cessna 206, with Taylon Heyling, 24, of California also onboard.
Somehow, their trip overshot their fuel supply.
"We carefully gassed up for 90 miles," McElveen said. "And we had 110 to go."
On the flight back, they realized they were in trouble about 12 miles out from their destination. The objective quickly became finding the safest place to land.
"A real smooth gravel bridge would have been nice," McElveen said, but they ended up going down in rough terrain.
"It was a pretty violent hit," he said.
Despite the crash, all three men walked away nearly unscathed. One had minor cuts.
The men activated an emergency locator beacon. A trooper aircraft flying to the spot, about 20 miles northwest of Port Alsworth, picked up the transmission and notified the Rescue Coordination Center at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.
After about five hours on the ground, the men were picked up by an RCC helicopter rescue crew at about 2 a.m., McElveen said.
On Wednesday, the men were at a lodge in Iliamna preparing to make a report to the National Transportation Safety Board. They are still trying to understand how the fuel miscalculation happened, McElveen said. They feel lucky to be alive.
"Metal can be replaced, people can't. We're really blessed we're all here."