On July 29, 1995, a 32-year-old man named Mark Anthony Pickar boarded a white, twin-engine Cessna 421C in Juneau, Alaska, for a flight destined for King Salmon. He was traveling with two other men, Richard Lindner and Allen Gelin. Their journey, however, was tragically interrupted. The group was flying near Middleton Island in the Gulf of Alaska when the pilot reported serious trouble with the plane's right engine, indicating it had 'come apart'.
The pilot intended to make an emergency landing on Middleton Island, a remote and uninhabited strip of land in Prince William Sound.
The flight, with the tail number N800DD, departed Juneau under visual flight rules but later requested an instrument flight rules clearance as it progressed. After the pilot reported the engine failure about 20 miles northwest of Middleton Island, air traffic control cleared the plane to fly directly to the island's VOR navigation aid. As the aircraft attempted to reach the island, it consistently lost altitude. According to the son of one of the passengers, the plane may have been overloaded upon departure. The last radar contact with the Cessna was at 11:45 AM, after it had flown past the island to the southeast. Weather conditions at the time were challenging, with a low cloud ceiling, five miles of visibility, and strong, gusty winds.
In the immediate aftermath of the last transmission, rescue crews commenced a search for the missing plane and its occupants. Search and rescue aircraft spotted an oil slick, bubbles, and some debris in the ocean approximately three miles south of the Middleton Island Airport, but they never saw the main wreckage. Tragically, the body of one of the occupants was recovered, but Mark Pickar and the other man were not found. The National Transportation Safety Board later determined the probable cause of the accident to be a loss of engine power for unknown reasons, leading to a collision with the water. The disappearance of Mark Pickar and the others is a somber reminder of the unforgiving nature of Alaskan aviation, and for their families, it remains a painful, unanswered question.Last Seen: Jul 29, 1995
