On the recommendation of the Alaska Rescue Coordination Center, the commander of the 11th Air Force has suspended search efforts for the missing pilot, Alan Foster, who was last seen leaving Yakutat on September 9th,

Foster left Yakutat after refueling his piper PA – 32 Cherokee and took off for Anchorage. His aircraft disappeared from radar at about 4 PM near Malispina Glacier.the Alaska Rescue Coordination Center said that it “has researched and resolved all possible leads and exhaustive search efforts in the area have proven unsuccessful.”

A total of 197 searchers in 57 aircraft flew a total of 84 sorties and accumulated approximately 280 flight hours searching for foster.

During the search efforts, the entire area was saturated with aircraft as rescuers attempted to find the missing pilot, even though there were few leads, and poor weather in the early days of searching hampered efforts.

“The tremendous support from Alaska Civil Air Patrol was awe inspiring,” said SMSgt Robert Carte, a senior controller with the 11th Air Force RCC. “Volunteers from CAP forward-deployed to Cordova, away from their families and jobs, just so they could extend the search area during daylight hours. That type of dedication is often seen in the aviation community, but these Alaskan’s really gave it their all.”

The United States Coast Guard, the Alaska State troopers, the Alaska Air National Guard and civil air patrol squadrons from Birchwood, Fairbanks, Eielson, Merrill field, Kenai, Valdez, and Juneau took part in the search efforts attempting to locate the missing pilot.