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(SOLDOTNA, ALASKA) — Good Samaritans helped save stranded plane crash victims on Monday after their aircraft went missing over a mountain range in Alaska.
A Piper PA-12 Super Cruiser was reported overdue on Sunday night, according to the Alaska National Guard. The plane had taken off from Soldotna Airport in Soldotna, Alaska, earlier in the day on Sunday.
The Alaska Rescue Coordination Center, a U.S. Coast Guard Super Hercules, Alaska State Troopers and Alaska National Guard launched a search effort but could not find it.
There was no emergency transmitter signal coming from the wreckage.
However, the Alaska National Guard told ABC News that a cellphone ping led searchers to believe the plane was near Tustumena Lake and the Kenai Mountains.
It was a civilian in an aircraft who wound up spotting the plane crash site on Monday.
Alaska officials said it was a testament to the strength of the community in Alaska that when an aircraft goes down, everybody takes to their planes and they go out and look.
One of the good Samaritans seeking the missing plane was Dale Eicher, who told ABC News that he was able to fly over the site of the crash approximately half an hour after it was first located and saw the survivors awaiting rescue.
An Alaska Army National Guard Blackhawk medivac variant with extended range, a hoist and a flight medic — part of the 207th Aviation Troop Command — went out to where the wreckage was spotted and found three people on the wing of the PA-12, which had seemingly broken the surface of a frozen body of water and had become partially submerged.
The National Guard told ABC News that the plane had missed the main lake; instead, the aircraft seems to have settled amid a glacial field and large body of water.
All three passengers on the plane survived the crash, were successfully rescued and were taken to a local hospital. There are no further updates on any injuries or what led to the crash.
ABC News’ Lena Camilletti contributed to this report.
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