On a summer day in Alaska, June 25, 2003, 62-year-old Albert "Bert" Novak, a male resident of Soldotna and a retired Northwest Airlines pilot, embarked on a flight that would end in tragedy and mystery. He was piloting a Cessna 180 aircraft, with the registration number N91303, on a journey from Hallo Bay to Homer, a flight path that stretched over the vast and often treacherous waters of the Cook Inlet. Accompanying him on this air taxi flight were two passengers, James and Pamela Hawthorne, a married couple and schoolteachers from Florida who were on one of their adventurous summer vacations. The flight, which should have taken about an hour, departed from the Hallo Bay Bear Lodge around 2:30 p.m., but the Cessna never reached its destination in Homer.
When the aircraft failed to arrive as scheduled, a comprehensive search and rescue operation was launched almost immediately. Multiple agencies, including the Alaska Air National Guard, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the Civil Air Patrol, scoured a remote and challenging search area of nearly 7,000 square miles. This vast expanse included uninhabited islands, glaciers, dense rainforests, and the open, unforgiving waters of the Cook Inlet. Despite the extensive efforts, the main wreckage of the Cessna 180 was not found, though a debris field was located. The search did lead to a heartbreaking discovery on July 3, 2003, when a fishing boat near Anchor Point found the body of a woman in the inlet. Authorities later tentatively identified the woman as 58-year-old Pamela Hawthorne, and an autopsy determined she had drowned.
The National Transportation Safety Board investigated the incident and concluded that the airplane was presumed to have collided with the ocean for an undetermined reason. While the recovery of Pamela Hawthorne brought a tragic resolution for her loved ones, the fate of the other two individuals on board remains unresolved. Both Albert Novak and James Hawthorne, who was 61, were never located. The case is an enduring mystery for their families and a somber reminder of the perils of aviation in the rugged Alaskan wilderness. The official investigation could not pinpoint a definitive cause for the crash, leaving only the presumption that the aircraft went down in the waters of Cook Inlet, taking the two men with it. Extensive searches yielded no further signs of the men or the aircraft, and they are presumed to have perished in the crash.
Last Seen: Jun 25, 2003
