{"id":48240,"date":"2019-05-21T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-05-21T20:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/pilot-and-passenger-identified-in-floatplane-crash\/"},"modified":"2019-05-23T08:44:48","modified_gmt":"2019-05-23T16:44:48","slug":"pilot-and-passenger-identified-in-floatplane-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/pilot-and-passenger-identified-in-floatplane-crash\/","title":{"rendered":"Pilot and passenger identified in floatplane crash"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t\t

A 51-year-old pilot and 31-year-old epidemiologist were identified as those who died in Monday afternoon’s floatplane crash near Metlakatla.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

Ron Rash of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, was the pilot of the floatplane that crashed, according to a statement from Metlakatla Indian Community, and Sarah Luna of Anchorage was the plane’s only passenger.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

“Sarah was traveling to Metlakatla to see patients at Annette Island Service Unit with other ANTHC staff,” read a statement from the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium post. “Sarah joined the ANTHC family nearly a year ago as a Senior Epidemiologist in the Liver Disease & Hepatitis Program. She was an up and coming research professional, who embodied the characteristics most valuable to our team and was truly committed to improving the health and well-being of Alaska Native people. This is a devastating personal loss for many of our staff and partners.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

[Live: Follow live updates on this story here<\/a>]<\/ins><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

Rash was certified to operate a single-engine seaplane, like the Taquan Air Beaver involved in Monday’s crash, according to Federal Aviation Administration documents<\/a>.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

This is the second fatal floatplane crash in Southeast Alaska within the past week. Ten were injured and six died after last Monday’s mid-air collision near Ketchikan.<\/a><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

Both crashes involved Beaver floatplanes operated by Taquan Air. Taquan Air voluntarily suspended operations Tuesday, according to the FAA, but the airline did not return calls or messages seeking comment.<\/p>\n

\"Good<\/a>

Good Samaritans and emergency responders pull in a floatplane involved in a fatal crash just after 6 p.m. Monday, May 20. (Courtesy Photo | Debra Milton)<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t

Both NTSB and FAA officials were onsite Tuesday to begin an investigation into the crash.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

There were unfavorable conditions for approach because of prevailing winds creating swells, according to a chart supplement on aeronautical chart website SkyVector<\/a>.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

The Beaver was up to date on its certification, according to FAA documents,<\/a> and the aircraft was made in 1959.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

The crash occurred around 4 p.m. Monday, and witness statements reported the plane flipped upon impact with the water while attempting to land and quickly submerged, according to a press release from the Ketchikan Emergency Operations Center.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

[Hundreds protest “War on Women”<\/a>]<\/ins><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

Triton, a medivac response vessel, and Lady Liv, a 58-foot commercial seiner, secured the plane, which was then transported to shallow waters pending a National Transportation Safety Board investigation, according to a Metlakatla Indian Community statement. Multiple good Samaritans assisted in securing the plane.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

Metlakatla Mayor Karl Cook praised the actions of the community in the aftermath of the wreck.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

“I’m pretty proud of the community of course,” Cook said during an interview with the Empire. “I think any community in the state would respond the same way. I think the whole state would be proud of what happened here as far as the response. I feel like it’s something that’s bred in us all in Alaska to give a hand without giving it a whole lot of forethought.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

\u2022 Contact reporter Ben Hohenstatt at (907)523-2243 or bhohenstatt@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @BenHohenstatt.<\/b><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

<\/p>\n\t\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Investigation started in Metlakatla <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":474,"featured_media":48241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":9,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,4],"tags":[621,75],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-48240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home","category-news","tag-float-plane-crash","tag-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/474"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48240"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=48240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}