On Monday, September 18th, two rangers flew to the site of a plane crash in the southwestern part of the park with NTSB and FAA personnel to assist in the investigation of an aircraft accident and recover the remains of the two occupants. The site is at an elevation of 2,700 feet, approximately one mile inside the park boundary on the north side of the canyon in the west fork of the Yentna River drainage southwest of Mystic Pass. The airplane was broken into many sections and there was evidence of a post-crash fire. According to information received by the Alaska State Troopers, two aircraft – a DeHavilland Beaver and a Cessna 185 – were returning to Anchorage after a successful moose hunt in the Selawik area on Friday, September 15th. The two planes stopped in Galena to refuel, but reportedly encountered bad weather in the Mystic Pass area. The Cessna was able to turn back and returned to Galena around midnight. When the Beaver failed to show up, the occupants of the Cessna contacted authorities. On Saturday, troopers asked the Rescue Coordination Center and Civil Air Patrol to launch a mission to locate the missing aircraft. At approximately 3 p.m. on Sunday afternoon, the wreckage of the Beaver was located by members of the Anchorage Polaris Squadron of the CAP. Pararescuemen with the 212th Rescue Squadron were able to make it to the crash site and confirmed that both occupants had died in the accident. The two men have been identified as Alex Stack, 38, and Aric Beane, 33, both of Anchorage. Stack was the pilot. The NPS was notified of the accident late on Sunday when it was determined that it had occurred within the preserve.
