![The remote lands of Alaska attract pilots and hunters but require extra flying caution. [Credit: Adobe Stock]](https://www.flyingmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/FLY1225_3.1-Aftermath.jpeg)
It was the last day of the hunting season. Tanks of fuel stashed at a remote Alaskan airstrip had to be retrieved. Time was short since a storm was approaching. A Cessna 206 landed on a gravel bar in the Porcupine River, and the pilot began loading 15-gallon fuel containers into the plane. To save time, she asked two hunters, who were waiting there for a different airplane, to empty two of the containers into her wing tanks. The whole operation lasted 12 minutes.
Seconds after the 206 became airborne, its engine sputtered. It banked steeply, and its right wingtip struck the surface of the river. The airplane cartwheeled before coming to rest, partially submerged. The powerful current and icy water of the river prevented the two hunters from getting to it. By the time a raft had been brought from the nearest base, 60 miles away, an hour and a half had passed. The pilot, 28, was dead.
