Search for small plane that disappeared in fog and rain over southeast Alaska called off

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The search has been called off for a small plane with three people on board that disappeared over southeastern Alaska last week.

“The decision to suspend is never easy,” Lt. Matt Naylor, the search mission coordinator, said in a social media post on X Monday night.

Pilot Samuel Wright of Haines flew the 1948 single-propeller Beechcraft Bonanza to Juneau on Saturday and departed that afternoon after picking up passengers Hans Munich and Tanya Hutchins, Coast Guard spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Mike Salerno told the Anchorage Daily News.

The plane was headed to Yakutat, about 275 miles (442 kilometers) northwest of Juneau, where Munich and Hutchins live.

However, a friend who was tracking the plane online said the radar stopped at Mount Crillon in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, about 100 miles west of Juneau. That friend alerted authorities later Saturday that the plane was overdue.

A search that began Saturday included a Coast Guard helicopter, an airplane and a boat crew. On Sunday, a Good Samaritan plane and a U.S. Air Force plane joined the search.

Weather conditions were poor when the plane was last tracked, with fog, rain and strong winds, Salerno said.