Darlene Ulak was traveling to Anchorage with her husband, grandson, and two other extended family members. Partway into the flight, she heard a loud pop.
“I turned around to my husband, who was seated across from me,” Ulak remembers. “I asked him, ‘what was that? Was that the ice?’ And shortly after I asked the question, big gush of cold wind came to me… I quickly put my hat on, my scarf, my mittens, my hood.”
The driver’s side of the windshield appeared to have broken away, leaving an open hole in the front of the plane.
Clint Johnson, the chief of the Alaska Regional Office of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), said that the incident started out with a crack in the Pilatus PC-12’s windshield. He said as of March 20, the agency’s understanding is that after the plane began its emergency descent, most of the right side of the windshield broke away.
“We are working closely with the operator to gather some parts on this, to see if we could take a look and see how this failure took place,” Johnson said.
Johnson said the NTSB is investigating the incident.
Reached March 20, a representative for Trygg Air said in an email that the airline is cooperating with authorities in the ongoing investigation, and did not provide additional details.
Ulak commends the pilot, who she said seemed calm after the window blew out, and turned the plane to descend toward the airport in the upper Kuskokwim village of Sleetmute. It’s not clear why the plane landed in Sleetmute or if the pilot considered making an emergency landing in other villages on the middle or upper Kuskokwim River.
Ulak’s 18-year old grandson was also on board who she said briefly helped manage the plane’s controls from the passenger seat as the pilot put on layers of clothing.
Ulak said that at the plane’s altitude and speed, she was told temperatures could have been near forty degrees below zero.
Ulak’s niece, Rodrica Sundown, was also on the plane with her two year old son.
“I know I shouldn't have, but I had grabbed my son out of his seat, put him in my coat, and buckled us both,” Sundown remembered. “I didn't want him to get too cold, because that one was chilling, and he was on the side for that wind was really hitting and entering the plane.”
After the initial shock and immediate task of bundling for warmth, Ulak said the passengers braced themselves for the unknown.
“But during that moment, somebody behind me tapped me. ‘We should all pray, ask them to pray.’ So during that moment, we had joined hands. We all said a prayer,” Ulak said.
After what Sundown guessed was around thirty frigid minutes filled with intense turbulence towards the landing, the plane landed in Sleetmute airport.
“I couldn't comprehend what just had happened was like a dream, or like in a movie, or it was unreal,” Ulak said.
In Sleetmute, Ulak said they were greeted by a caretaker of the Sleetmute store and Hills lodge who offered them tea and coffee. Ulak said she couldn’t have met them with more kindness.
“She did everything she can with what she had to offer us to make us feel safe, comfortable,” Ulak recalls.
All nine passengers opted to stay overnight at Hills Lodge. Ulak said the group was in too much shock to immediately board another plane.
That night, they sat together at the lodge’s dining table to eat a meal the caretaker provided. Afterward, they gathered around the TV to watch a local march madness basketball game.
The next morning, a plane from a different airline arrived to take them to Anchorage.
“I was reluctant to get on the plane again, but pilot that came to because that encouraged me go ahead and board,” Ulak said. “He softly spoke to me, and that helped me some so and he reassured me that is beautiful in Anchorage.”
Once arriving, Ulak says they were greeted by a representative from Trygg Air who gave them pastries and listened to their accounts of the incident. But after that, Ulak says the airline had not been in contact with them until 13 days later. Her family says there’s still no word about compensation or liability.
Sundown said in Anchorage, the passengers overheard the representative tell the pilot not to post pictures of the plane or speak about the incident online. Sundown said she felt this was silencing the passengers as well.
Sundown said when the airline got in contact on March 20, the owner of the airline told passengers that they shouldn’t post or speak about the incident until the NTSB report was filed.
But last week Sundown posted her account of the incident to Facebook.
“We did stay quiet for a while, but it's eating at us to sit here and deal with this silently and to not have the owner like give us a call, even a letter, even a text, to see how we're doing,” Sundown said.
Ulak says although no one sustained significant injuries, the event has been mentally and emotionally taxing.
“It's still it's still lingering, those feelings, the noise, the sounds, and even see pictures or even to talk about it is makes me shake, and even through the night, when I wake up in the middle of the night, I get scared,” Ulak described.
As of March 21, there’s not a timeline for when the incident investigation may wrap up.
This is a developing story and may be updated with additional information.
