Pilot survives week in remote bay

JOHN DAVIDSON

Frontiersman reporter

A Wasilla pilot spent much of last week in a remote cabin on the Kenai Peninsula before he was able to radio a passing Coast Guard plane for help.

Mike Holman, 45, was rescued early Sunday morning after spending five days in a remote area some 15 miles south of Seldovia.

Holman was headed for a cabin near Seldovia on Nov. 23, but landed his Maule ML-7 single-engine aircraft in remote Koyuktolik Bay to go beach-combing, a National Guard spokesman said Monday.

The aircraft's engine wouldn't restart when Holman was ready to leave and the tide came in, destroying the plane.

Maj. Mike Stowers at Kulis Air National Guard Base in Anchorage said Holman realized no one would find him in the mountainous area where his aircraft was destroyed, so he hiked for nearly a day to reach a small fishing cabin on the coast.

There, Holman found shelter, food and water -- and a hand-held radio he could use to call for help.

Holman's last radio contact occurred Nov. 23, as he crossed Turnagain Arm, 18 miles south of Anchorage. Because Holman never filed a flight plan, the search parameters encompassed a 4,000-square-mile area that encompassed his last point of contact to his destination in Seldovia.

That area did not include Koyuktolik, or Dogfish Bay, as it's called locally.

"We'd been searching from his last known position south to Seldovia," Stowers said. "He ended up being 15 miles south from where he said he was going. We're not even sure of his exact route of flight."

Search-and-rescue teams from several agencies, as well as private rescuers, had been combing the area for four days and began to give up hope that Holman was still alive.

At around 4 p.m. Saturday, Holman spotted a passing Coast Guard C-130 and radioed for help from the fishing cabin. Holman told the Coast Guard he was safe and in good condition with plenty of food, water and other provisions Saturday afternoon. The transport spotted a bonfire Holman built on the beach and called the National Guard at Kulis.

The Coast Guard told National Guardsmen they had received a strange call while on a training mission out of Kodiak. Guardsman at Kulis knew immediately who it was. Due to weather conditions, the Air National Guard decided to wait until early Sunday to rescue Holman.

At first light Sunday, a HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopter was dispatched to Dogfish Bay. Holman was reunited with his family at Kulis Air National Guard Base in Anchorage later that day. Twenty-three aircraft flew more than 235 hours and 85 sorties in search of Holman last week, according to a press release from the Office of Public Affairs at Fort Richardson.

The Civil Air Patrol, Alaska Air National Guard and private aviators took part in the search, said Mike Haller, public relations officer with the Air National Guard's Rescue Coordination Center.

Weather was a significant factor throughout the week as searchers flew routes crisscrossing the Kenai Peninsula, looking for signs of Holman and his blue-and-white Maule ML-7 aircraft. Searchers experienced severe winds of up to 80 mph at higher elevations across the Kenai Peninsula.

Contact John Davidson at john.davidson@frontiersman.com.