Three people are safe after their float plane made an emergency landing on the tundra Saturday. The landing took place near the Big Bend area, between the upper drainages of the Nushagak and Mulchatna rivers, according to the troopers. The Cessna 206 equipped with floats suffered an engine failure. Megan Peters is a spokesperson for the state troopers.
"We received word that a plane was in trouble and they were going to have to set it down. They were trying to contact people to let them know. Shortly after that a spot signal went off, essentially that's the help button on a plane. We had a trooper in the area respond in a R-44 helicopter. All three people were located with the downed plane, which was intact. The people were all uninjured," said Peters.
The passengers were brought to a nearby lake where another floatplane picked them up and returned them to King Salmon.
The 206 was operated by Branch River Air Service from King Salmon. The pilot was 30 year old Bryan Pfaender of Girdwood. The two passengers were from Switzerland. Branch River Air Service declined to comment on the incident. The company will arrange to remove the aircraft from the tundra.