Denali National Park staff are 鈥渃oordinating search and recovery operations鈥 for a聽flightseeing plane that crashed Saturday at Thunder Mountain, according to 聽released yesterday. NPS and聽National Transportation Safety Board officials hope to fly out to the site today, but bad聽weather may postpone recovery and investigation of the wreckage. In addition, the plane is located on dangerous terrain.
鈥淸The plane] is on a hanging glacier, and the nose of the aircraft is embedded in a crevasse,鈥 says Katherine Belcher, a spokeswoman for the park. 鈥淭hey need time on the ground to investigate, and unfortunately聽that location makes putting bodies on the ground incredibly difficult.鈥
The plane, operated by , crashed Saturday evening, 14 miles southwest of Denali鈥檚 summit in a mountainside crevasse at an elevation of 10,900 feet. The pilot, Craig Layson of Saline, Michigan, who had , made two satellite calls soon after, reporting injuries. According to pilots in the area, it was cloudy but relatively calm earlier in the day, but heavier clouds moved in later in the afternoon and evening. Saturday and Sunday, officials patrolled the area via helicopter but were unable to see the wreckage due to cloud cover.
On Monday, search and rescue rangers reached the crash during a brief period of clear weather. A ranger was lowered to the plane from a helicopter and proceeded to dig through the snow. He found four bodies, and no footprints or other signs that the any of the passengers made it out of the plane. The fifth passenger聽is 鈥渦naccounted for and presumed dead,鈥 .
The four passengers on the flightseeing tour were from Poland. The Polish Consulate in Los Angeles has requested that their names not be shared.
A spokesperson for the National Transportation Safety Board that accessing the site will 鈥渞equire technical climbing experience.鈥 More crevasses tend to appear with summer snow melt, , director of operations for the American Alpine Institute.
The last fatal air taxi crash in the park was in 2003, according to Belcher. At that time, a Cessna crashed in South Hunter Pass, killing the pilot and three passengers, according to . In 2000, pilot and dog musher Don Bowers and three rangers died in a crash near Yentna Glacier.