In a harrowing story of survival, a pilot and two children endured a freezing night atop the wing of a partially submerged aircraft after crashing into an icy Alaska lake. The trio, stranded for nearly 12 hours, were miraculously rescued after a Good Samaritan spotted the wreckage and alerted authorities.
Terry Godes, a local searcher, came across a Facebook post on Sunday night urging people to help locate a missing plane. The following morning, he set out toward Tustumena Lake, near a glacier’s edge, and was met with a heartbreaking sight… wreckage in the frigid waters.
“It kind of broke my heart to see that,” Godes told The Associated Press. But as he flew lower, his despair turned to astonishment. “There were three people on top of the wing, alive and moving around.”
The downed Piper PA-12 Super Cruiser had taken off from Soldotna on a recreational sightseeing trip to Skilak Lake before crashing. The pilot and his two young passengers clung to life atop the wing through the long, freezing night, enduring temperatures that plunged into the 20s (below zero Celsius).
Godes quickly radioed other pilots involved in the search, and Dale Eicher, another pilot, relayed the coordinates to authorities. Within an hour, the Alaska National Guard swooped in and airlifted the survivors to safety.
The trio was transported to a hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening. Godes marveled at the multiple miracles that kept them alive: the plane remained partially above water, the survivors managed to stay on the wing, and despite the brutal cold, they endured the night.
“It’s a cold, dark place out there,” Godes said. “They weren’t planning on spending the night on an airplane wing in the middle of a freezing lake.”
The National Transportation Safety Board, alongside the Federal Aviation Administration, has launched an investigation into the cause of the crash.
