Flight To Success: Alaska Bush Flying

Truth is Stranger than Fiction...

My friend Captain Wright sent me this story. I loved it, and thought you would too!

“Earlier in his career John had been a Bristol Bay commercial fisherman with a salmon permit for Eggegik (a harbor in Bristol Bay). The nearest “civilization” was King Salmon where they commuted to and from in various charter aircraft. On the trip in question the aircraft was a Cessna Caravan with CP propeller. Somewhere approaching King Salmon the gear assembly in the CP propeller decided it needed a rest which effectively converted the Caravan into a glider.

The occurrence, being a great stimulant of situational awareness, put both the pilot and John in search of a suitable landing spot. The choices more or less narrowed down to a river or a sandbar in the river. Choosing the sandbar, they made a successful landing although it was appearing that the plane would reach two large clumps of grass and tree trunks before stopping – which it did.

The end result was that the fuselage made it between the obstructions but the wings did not. Having had time to broadcast a “mayday”, a helicopter from the nearby King Salmon Air Force Base was on site to rescue and medivac them back to town.

Fast forward to the next year’s salmon season.

John showed up in King Salmon and climbed into an Eggegik air taxi and recognized the pilot as being his co-adventurer of the year before. Not only the pilot, but other things seemed similar. Noticing John’s curiosity, the pilot said, “See that dent in the instrument panel? – Your head should fit that perfectly”. Turns out that the fuselage and both wings were recovered and flown to a hanger in King Salmon” and reassembled to fly many more seasons.”