There is a Beaver Down on the meadows of the Swikshak River with passengers and reporting one fatality. This is just 6 miles south of Fourpeaked Mountain reported on the radio news tonight to be erupting with small plumbs of smoke and ash. I wonder if the two events are connected and if the plane is one of ours from here in Homer. Apparently, Fourpeaked Mountain is a volcano, dormant for 10,000 years. The area lies on the Katmai Coast, across from Kodiak, just south of Cape Douglas and north of Hallo Bay. The weather too may be a factor. For me it would be a no fly day. There centers an 1092 low over just about that spot. Winds were predicted for 50 knots with seas of 20 feet in the Shelikof Strait. It will be a tough ride for the Helicopter if, indeed, they don't wait until morning. The mouth of the Swikshak was once a native village. It is now home to a dens population of Brown Bear. The site is just over an hour by floatplane southwest of Homer. The winds off the mountains, down there, can be God awful in this kind of weather, especially off of the glaciers.
The above link to the ADN, leads to a brief report, just before 10p, that a HH 60 Pavehawk Rescue helicopter took 4 surviving out of state passengers to Kodiak and then went back for the 5th and the body of the remaining passenger. The names and the name of the operator are withheld. The accident was prior to 2p when the Air National Guard C-130 was called. This may have been before the weather got real bad but I doubt it. One thing is for sure, the rescue people who respond to these emergencies are good at their job.
The above link to the ADN, leads to a brief report, just before 10p, that a HH 60 Pavehawk Rescue helicopter took 4 surviving out of state passengers to Kodiak and then went back for the 5th and the body of the remaining passenger. The names and the name of the operator are withheld. The accident was prior to 2p when the Air National Guard C-130 was called. This may have been before the weather got real bad but I doubt it. One thing is for sure, the rescue people who respond to these emergencies are good at their job.
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