A pilot with Renfro’s Alaskan Adventures is recovering in an Anchorage hospital after surviving a plane crash Friday.
The Bethel Army National Guard unit received a call at 4:00 p.m. Friday to rescue a downed pilot outside Goodnews Bay. The pilot has not been identified.
National Guard members and Bethel EMT’s loaded into a Black Hawk helicopter and flew 93 miles south of Bethel to the crash site.
Chief Warrant Officer Paul Jones led the mission.
“We got on scene, found the airplane, landed. We let the EMT’s and the crew chief out. They made their way over to the crash site and found the patient. He was alive, responsive, conscious and generally in good spirits,” Jones said.
The pilot was the only person on board the wrecked blue and white Cessna 207. The rescue crew loaded the patient into the helicopter and flew back to Bethel where they transferred the pilot to a Life Med Learjet. The jet transported the pilot to Anchorage for medical care.
Lt. Col. Candis Olmstead with the Alaska National Guard says the Renfro pilot sustained facial and spinal injuries.
Wade Renfro, owner of Renfro’s Alaskan Adventures, says this accident marks the first time one of their pilots has been hurt in a crash.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the accident and expects to transport the aircraft wreckage to an inspection center in Bethel this week.
