Search called off for small airplane that went missing in fog and rain over Alaska

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- The search has been suspended for a small airplane with three people aboard that went missing over southeast Alaska last weekend.

“The decision to suspend is never easy,” said Lt. Matt Naylor, the search mission coordinator, said in a social media post on X Monday evening.

Pilot Samuel Wright of Haines flew the single-propeller, 1948 Beechcraft Bonanza to Juneau on Saturday and left that afternoon after picking up passengers Hans Munich and Tanya Hutchins, Coast Guard spokesperson Lt. Cmdr. Mike Salerno told the Anchorage Daily News.

The plane was headed to Yakutat, about 275 miles (442 kilometers) northwest of Juneau, where Munich and Hutchins live.

However, a friend tracking the plane online said the radar stopped near Mount Crillon in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, about 100 miles west of Juneau. That friend alerted authorities later Saturday that the plane was overdue.

A search that began Saturday included a Coast Guard helicopter, plane and boat crews. On Sunday, a good Samaritan aircraft and a U.S. Air Force plane joined the search.

Weather conditions were generally poor with fog, rain and gusty winds when the plane was last tracked, Salerno said.