Alaska State troopers continue to investigate the circumstances surrounding the crash of a private plane that went down in Cook Inlet near Birchwood on Thursday, August 6th.

Troopers originally reported on Friday of last week that they had received a call informing them that there was a downed aircraft west of the Birchwood Airport. The Rescue Coordination Center and the Anchorage Fire Department were notified of the reported incident. The AFD launched a watercraft and RCC launched aircraft, and at 6:10 am, RCC notified troopers that an aircraft was located 1.95 miles northeast of the Birchwood airport. They also advised troopers that no people were found in and around of the aircraft.

At that time, it was unknown how many persons were aboard the aircraft or their identities. No aircraft had been reported missing or overdue. It wasn’t until later that troopers released the names of persons that they believed were in the aircraft when it went down. They reported that there were two aboard, the pilot of the aircraft was identified as 29-year-old Seth Fairbanks and one passenger was identified, 23-year-old Anthony Hooper, both were from McGrath.

Troopers now report that “Information developed thus far indicates Seth Fairbanks made the call at 2354 hours on 08/6/15 using a satellite phone. The number he called was 907-543-2294, which is the main (non-emergency) number for the Alaska State Trooper Post in Bethel.” But, because that call to Bethel was made after-hours, the call was re-routed to the trooper dispatch center in Fairbanks. The call lasted 69 seconds then dropped off,  troopers report.

During the call, Fairbanks told the trooper dispatch center that he was standing atop his plane and needed to be picked up immediately, then the call ended. Because the call had routed through Bethel, the callers information was not displayed on the Fairbanks center’s visual display, and no calling number was available to dispatch there.

Both men are still missing and are presumed deceased.

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  aircraft, airplane, Alaska, anthony hooper, birchwood, Cook Inlet, crash, deceased, investigation, mcgrath, seth fairbanks