A plane carrying three passengers from Bethel crashed on the night of Sept. 15 within a mile of the runway at St. Mary’s, killing all four men aboard, authorities say.
The Cessna 207 was operated by Yute Commuter Service and was believed to be carrying employees of the company rather than charter or scheduled passengers, according to Clint Johnson, Alaska chief of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). Johnson said that the agency is investigating the crash, and the information he provided on Sept. 16 was preliminary.
Authorities have not identified the four men who died in the crash.
This plane took off on the evening of Sept. 15 for St. Mary’s. Before it arrived, the pilot requested a “special VFR” visual rules clearance or an exemption from rules governing flights in bad weather, Johnson said.
“They did not make the airport,” Johnson said. The plane crashed about a half mile from the runway at St. Mary’s just after 10 p.m. on Sept. 15.
The Alaska Rescue Coordination Center contacted the Alaska State Troopers about an overdue aircraft in the St. Mary’s area at about 11:15 p.m., troopers said in an online dispatch released Sept. 16. Troopers based in the village responded to the plane’s last known location and found the wreckage.
Wildlife Troopers and officers from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service helped move the men’s bodies to a road for transport to the State Medical Examiner’s Office for autopsy, troopers said.
Yute operates flights throughout the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta region. The company has been involved in several crashes in recent years, including one near Tuntutuliak in 2020 that left five dead and also involved a special visual rules clearance.
Paklook Air Inc. does business as Yute Commuter Service. Paklook is owned by Michael “Wade” Renfro and Jacqueline Renfro, according to state corporation records. Wade Renfro owned the plane involved in Sunday night’s crash, officials said.
It was the third fatal Alaska plane crash in four days. Two men died on Sept. 14 in a crash on the Kenai Peninsula near Tustumena Lake. On Sept. 15, a 71-year-old Anchorage man died when his modified experimental plane crashed on a road near Wasilla.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
