Big Lake plane crash kills 1

BIG LAKE — Two more planes crashed in the Valley in the last three days, leaving one dead and two injured.

The first crashed at around 6 p.m., Sept. 7 about 25 miles east of Talkeetna. David Akers, 54, of Palmer, reported that crash to troopers.

“He was the passenger of a plane that had just crashed and submerged into a small lake,” troopers report.

The pilot, Sheila Pierskalla, 54, of Wasilla, had had difficulties on landing, troopers report. Both walked away, Pierskalla with minor injuries. The Rescue Coordination Center on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson picked them up and flew them to Mat-Su Regional Medical Center in Palmer.

The second crash happened at 1 p.m., Monday near Beaver Lake. Again it was a person involved that called troopers.

“One of the individuals in the wreck contacted dispatch,” said trooper spokeswoman Megan Peters.

West Lakes Fire Chief Bill Gamble said his crews couldn’t reach the crash. According to scanner traffic throughout the afternoon, Life Med air ambulance was the first that was able to reach it.

Radioing from the scene the Life Med crew told dispatchers that the pilot was deceased. The Rescue Coordination Center responded to this crash as well, transporting both the survivor and the pilot to Mat-Su Regional Medical Center.

Peters said that, as of 4 p.m. troopers were not able to release names as they had not notified the next of kin.

“I don’t know what kind of airplane it was. We haven’t been out there yet to take a look,” she said.

It has been a difficult autumn for plane crashes in the Valley with numerous plane crashes reported since late August:

• On Aug. 29, brothers-in-law Adam Norton, 30, and Derrick Swanson died in a crash north of Sutton.

• On Aug. 30, Scott Mueller died and his passenger suffered minor injuries during a crash just after takeoff in Rainy Pass.

• On Sept. 3 two men survived a crash in Rainy Pass.

• On Sept. 5 Michael S. Zobel, 41, of Anchorage, died in a crash near Eureka.

Peters said it has been very busy for search and rescue and recovery operations for troopers.

“It’s hunting season,” she said. “With hunters going out you have tons of people going into the back country.”

Added to that, she said, has been some pretty inclement weather that has both been making flight difficult and hampering rescue and recovery efforts.

“We’ve had a number of them in a short amount of time and I don’t know if the statistics would say that it’s more than usual but it definitely feels like a lot,” Peters said.

Also this week the National Transportation Safety Board released an initial report about the crash that killed Norton and Swanson. The report says the flight originated and was scheduled to end at Wolf Lake Airport.

“According to a family member of the pilot, the purpose of the flight was to scout for locations to hunt moose, and the pilot said that they would return later that afternoon,” the report states.

The report describes the crash scene and the weather report at the time of the crash from the closest weather station at the Palmer Airport but doesn’t get into anything that could be possibly construed as a cause of the wreck.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.