Around 11:17 am, yesterday, the Coast Guard were notified of an overdue aircraft due back from Niblack Mine. About the same time, Coast Search and Rescue was notifed by Ketchikan Air Station that an emergency locator beacon had been detected.

Niblack mine is located approximately 27 miles to the southwest of Ketchikan on Prince of Wales Island.

United States Coast Guard, Alaska State Troopers, the Ketchikan Volunteer Rescue Squad, Temsco Helicopters, and Guardian Flight Services responded to the scene.

The two occupants of the downed plane were located by the S.S. Niblack after hearing the Urgent Marine Information broadcast from the Coast Guard. They were taken to a stationary barge near the mine operation.

The pilot of the Southeast Aviation owned aircraft was pilot Ernest Robb, age 64 of Ketchikan. He had one passenger onboard at the time of the crash, Murray Richardson, age 56 of Vancouver, British Columbia. Both pilot and passenger had sustained injuries in the crash. Coast Guard Petty Officer Jeremy Dawkins, a search and rescue controller out of Juneau, said of their injuries, “There were some injuries. They were banged up pretty good. They are mobile and they are stable at this time.”

Medics treated both pilot and passenger before Guardian Flight Services transported both victims to Ketchikan’s Peace Health Medical Center, where they were then air-lifted to Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center.

The initial investigation showed that weather played a factor in the crash, heavy snow and very low visibilty were reported. The plane encountered the adverse weather shortly after take-off.

The aircraft crashed not far from the Niblack operation and is now near the mouth of the bay, on the beach and partially submerged.

Both the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board were notified of the crash.