Search and rescue personnel with the Alaska Air National Guard are still catching up after a long holiday weekend that included three plane crashes, one of which claimed the life of an Anchorage pilot and hunting guide.
Cary Foster’s Piper PA-18 Super Cub went down Saturday at a remote site about 60 miles south of McGrath. The National Transportation Safety Board has begun looking into the crash according to its Alaska chief, Clint Johnson.
“On Sunday, we launched NTSB investigator Stacia Joyce along with the Alaska State Troopers and one of their helicopters,” Johnson said.
Johnson said that Joyce documented the crash scene. And the agency is now preparing to retrieve the wrecked Super Cub to look for clues to what caused it to crash.
“So we’re working with the family and also the family’s insurance company to be able to get that wreckage off of the mountain where it is right now, get it back to Wasilla, so we can have a chance to take a look at that wreckage,” he said Tuesday.
Johnson hopes to recover the wrecked plane in the coming days, while the agency follows up on investigating the other crashes.
“Obviously, beginning of hunting season — this is a very busy time for the Alaska NTSB,” he said.
It also was a busy weekend for the Guard’s 176th Wing and its Rescue Coordination Center. Both operate out of Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage.
“We rescued eight individuals from five different missions, and the missions were all over the place,” said 176th Wing spokesperson Dave Bedard. He said one of those missions was to recover Foster’s body and bring it back for an autopsy.
He added that the pilot of the HH-60 Pavehawk helicopter noticed a stranded hunter about 12 miles from the fatal crash site.
“The Pave Hawk transported both to JBER,” he said. “The remains were released to the state medical examiner, and the survivor was released.”
Long weekend started with 2 plane crashes
The 176th’s long weekend began Friday, when it responded to two plane crashes. The first was in Skwentna, about 70 miles northwest of Anchorage. There were no injuries reported, and rescuers picked up the pilot and brought him back to Anchorage.
Bedard said the second mission, for a plane crash about 50 miles southwest of Tok, was much more complicated.
“This one, probably because of terrain, included a hoist,” he said.
Two people were injured in that crash when Alaska State Troopers say their plane went down in a mountainous area near Slana, off the Tok Cutoff. Bedard said the terrain required rescuers to hoist them up into the helicopter from the ground using a cable.
A troopers spokesperson said the pilot wasn’t badly hurt, but the passenger suffered serious injuries. The spokesperson declined to identify the victims. Bedard said they were transported to hospitals in Anchorage.
“One patient was taken to Providence, and the other was taken to the JBER hospital,” he said.
Johnson said the aircraft the two were flying in was a Cessna 150.
“Obviously, serious injuries. We don’t have a whole lot of information right now,” Johnson said. “We hope to be able to talk to the pilot when his health allows.”
Bedard said the 176th Wing also conducted three other rescue missions over the weekend. On Sunday, Guardsmen rescued two stranded hikers in a remote area of Denali National Park, and on Monday they picked up two stranded hunters near the park.
Tim Ellis is a reporter at KUAC in Fairbanks.
