Coast Guard identifies 3 missing people aboard plane in Southeast Alaska

Updated: 30 minutes ago Published: 30 minutes ago

The search continued Monday in Southeast Alaska for a Haines man and two Yakutat residents who went missing after the plane they were on was reported delayed Saturday, a U.S. Coast Guard official said.

Samuel Wright, of Haines, flew to Juneau on Saturday in his 1948 Beechcraft Bonanza, taking off about 1:45 p.m. with Hans Munich and Tanya Hutchins aboard, said Lt. Cmdr. Mike Salerno, spokesman for the 17th Coast Guard District.

The plane was headed to Yakutat, where Munich and Hutchins live, Salerno said. A friend of one of the three reported the plane was running late around 5:40 p.m., Salerno said. The friend told authorities they had been tracking the plane online and noticed the radar had stopped at Mount Crillon in the Fairweather Range, Salerno said.

The flight was not a charter, Salerno said. He had no details about how the people might have known each other.

Hutchins and Munich own Coastal Air Service in Yakutat. Munich is an experienced pilot who has been flying for more than 36 years, according to the company’s website.

Coast Guard helicopter, plane and boat crews began searching Saturday. Searches continued Sunday with assistance from a good Samartian plane and a U.S. Air Force plane. The search was suspended overnight and resumed Monday, focusing on the mountain range, Salerno said.

“The height of some of the cloud tops has been a factor in some of the searches, and what I understand is there’s a weather window today, so they want to keep flying and try to look through some of the cloud breaks,” he said.