On August 4, 2018, a sightseeing tour that departed from Talkeetna, Alaska, ended in tragedy, leaving 46-year-old Robert Sieniawski and four others missing in the remote wilderness of Denali National Park. Sieniawski, a visitor from Poland, was joined by three other Polish tourists, Janusz Intek, Kazimierz Miernik, and Maria Libacka, for what was intended to be a one-hour scenic flight over the stunning glaciers of the Alaska Range. The group was piloted by Craig Layson of Michigan, flying a de Havilland DHC-2 Beaver operated by K2 Aviation. The flight was scheduled to pass over landmarks like the Kahiltna Glacier before returning to Talkeetna. However, the aircraft never completed its journey, vanishing in the vast and unforgiving landscape.
The plane crashed at approximately 6 p.m. high on a knife-edge ridge of Thunder Mountain, about 14 miles from the summit of Denali. The wreckage came to rest in a crevasse at an elevation of nearly 11,000 feet, in what the National Park Service described as extremely steep terrain consisting of near-vertical rock, ice, and snow. In the hour following the crash, the pilot, Craig Layson, was able to make two brief satellite phone calls, reporting that the plane had crashed and that there were injuries among the passengers. Tragically, communication was lost before further details could be relayed, and this would be the last known contact with anyone on board. The plane was equipped with survival gear, including sleeping bags and a stove, but the severity of the crash and the harsh environment offered little hope.
Initial search and rescue efforts were severely hampered by low-lying clouds and poor weather conditions, which are common in the high altitudes of the Alaska Range. It wasn't until two days later, on August 6, that a break in the weather allowed a National Park Service helicopter to spot the wreckage. A ranger was lowered to the site and confirmed the deaths of four of the five individuals inside the snow-filled aircraft. Four days later, a subsequent visit to the site by a ranger led to the location of the fifth and final victim. Due to the extreme dangers posed by the location-including the steepness of the terrain, avalanche hazards, and the instability of the wreckage which was broken in half and perched precariously over a deep crevasse-officials made the difficult decision that it was not feasible to recover the victims or the aircraft. The official overview of the case is that all five individuals on board perished in the crash, and their remains have not been recovered from the mountain.
Last Seen: Aug 4, 2018
