On a summer morning, July 25, 1984, 44-year-old Donald Gabbert, along with four other men, boarded a chartered twin-engine Cessna 401B in Anchorage, Alaska. The white aircraft, bearing the registration number N7984Q, had green and gold trim and was destined for the small community of Cantwell, a flight that should have taken about an hour over the immense Alaskan wilderness.
The passengers were employees of Newberry Alaska, undertaking an inspection trip related to the Alaska Power Authority intertie between Fairbanks and Anchorage. Also on board were Gerald Dalrymple, Jack Dickey, Gordon Newstrom, and the pilot, Keith Newstrom. The flight departed Anchorage International Airport at 7:31 a.m. on a company VFR flight plan, but it never reached its destination.
The morning of the flight, the pilot, Keith Newstrom, received weather briefings indicating VFR conditions with the possibility of marginal weather along the route. An updated briefing before departure reported that the destination of Cantwell was under IFR conditions. After the Cessna departed Anchorage, there were no further communications with the aircraft. When the plane failed to arrive in Cantwell, an extensive search was launched, but no trace of the aircraft or its five occupants was ever found. The vast and rugged terrain of the Alaska Range, which the flight path crossed, is known for its unforgiving nature, and many planes have vanished within its expanse over the years.
The disappearance left the families of the five men in a state of perpetual uncertainty. In the weeks following the official suspension of the search, Newberry Alaska Inc. offered a $5,000 reward for information about the missing plane. The pilot's father, Gordon Newstrom, a legendary aviator himself, spent seven years flying over the Alaskan wilderness, tirelessly searching for his son and the other men, but found no clues or wreckage. The case remains one of Alaska's many unsolved aviation mysteries, a poignant reminder of the power of nature and the fragility of human endeavors in the face of it. The National Transportation Safety Board's final report concluded the reason for the occurrence was undetermined, leaving the final moments of Donald Gabbert and his companions a permanent, heartbreaking question mark.Last Seen: Jul 25, 1984
