Missing Airplanes in Alaska

The Early Days

Over the decades, many planes have gone missing in Alaska, but not all the outcomes were bad, especially in the early years of aviation in the state. Often, days or even weeks after a plane disappeared in a remote region of the state and the pilot was assumed dead, he would wander out of the brush and into a village. Such was the case with Noel Wien in 1925 when he was flying to Fairbanks from the village of Wiseman. When strong winds blew him off course and he ran out of gas, he was forced to land on a sandbar. He had to walk 40 miles back to civilization and ford…