Although the Cessna 206 enroute from Wrangell to Angoon was located shortly after its emergency beacon was activated following its crash in steep terrain on Admiralty Island on Friday morning, the lone survivor of that ill-fated flight would remain without assistance several hours because weather conditions prevented a USCG MH-60 Jayhawk from getting a rescue diver on the ground at the scene.

Shortly after the Cessna was reported overdue, an emergency beacon was activated and a nearby commercial flight was diverted to the area and quickly located the downed aircraft.

Following it aborted initial attempt to reach the site, the helicopter launched out of the Coast Guard facility in Sitka, returned to its base and picked up a Sitka Mountain Rescue Team and put them down near the site to conduct ground operations. [xyz-ihs snippet=”adsense-body-ad”]

But, it took several hours for the rescue team to reach the crash site. When they climbed up through the snow-covered terrain and reached the site, they found only one survivor of the four that had been on the flight. The survivor, 21-year-old Morgan Enright, was discovered in critical condition and transported first to Kake then to Juneau. Following initial treatment, Enright was medevaced from Juneau to the Harborview Medical Center in Seattle for further treatment. She remains at that facility in critical condition, but now breathing on her own.

Enright had been on her way to Angoon to work on a ferry terminal project for Ketchikan Ready-Mix and Quarry when the aircraft went down.

The three other persons on board the flight perished. After informing next of kin, the three were identified as 60-year-old David Galla, the pilot, and passengers 61-year-old Greg Scheff and 57-year-old Thomas Siekawitch. All three were Wrangell residents.

Investigators responded to the scene over the weekend and completed their on-scene investigation and the wreckage was recovered using two helicopters.

  angoon, cessna 206, Coast Guard, crash, david galla, greg scheff, morgan enright, rescue, sitka mountain rescue, thomas siekawitch, wrangell