THE LAST FLIGHT

This story was written after I returned from Alaska in 1993 and has been revised and condensed.  

It was the end of September, 1993 and the storms were blowing in more frequently, including a dusting of snow one morning.  My work detail and my dream of working in Alaska was coming to an end.   I was ready to go home.   It was all the thrills one could imagine working in the brush, including the festering welts from the thorns of Devils' Club, the constant rain and the fear of bear encounters.   One of the great adventures was flying in the contracted float planes used to transport us back and forth between Petersburg and the logging camp at Rowan Bay on Kuiu Island.   This usually involved about an hour of flying time depending on the weather.   It seemed every activity up here was controlled by the weather, which could change in a minute.   Flying was not permitted if the visibility was less than half a mile and the ceiling was under 500 feet.   There were days when people were confined to camp on their days off because of bad weather.  Unthinkable, after spending 10 days in camp where the only entertainment after work was fishing or watching the one and only public TV channel out of Anchorage. 

Most the pilots were middle age, experienced and always concerned about safety.    Flight vests were required of all passengers.  These vests included a co2 cartridge that would inflate the vest into a life jacket, a flare gun and survival gear in the event of an emergency landing or crash.   

On the third day before my scheduled flight from Petersburg to Juneau, and then to Portland on Alaskan Airlines, I decided to take advantage of a break in the weather by calling for a float plane to take me back to Petersburg where I could stay in the barracks until my flight to Juneau.    I made the call to dispatch.  The dispatcher asked me,  "how is your weather there"?  I replied, "fine".   He said there would be a plane there in an hour.   After getting all my belongings packed a co-worker drove me down to the dock as we waited for the plane.   The wind started picking up and the clouds started settling down around the surrounding mountains.  Finally we spotted the plane coming into the bay.   I said my good-byes and went down the dock to meet the pilot.  As he got out of the plane, I noticed he was quite young.   Where were those older experienced pilots was my first thought.   The weather was getting worse.   The pilot introduced himself and helped me into the plane.   Now I was thinking I should have waited another day or two, but it was too late now.  The pilot put on his head set, turned the plane into the wind, pushed in the throttle and off we went.   I could see the pilot adjusting the radio frequency dial on the instrument panel as he was talking into his head set.   Due to the roar of the engine I could not hear anything he was saying.   Occasionally, there would be a break in the clouds and I could see we were not much over 500 feet of the water, if that.   Soon I could see mountains rising ahead of us, than we were engulfed in clouds again.   I looked for radar on the instrument panel, there was none.   The pilot kept talking on the radio.  My right hand was gripping a handle over the passenger door so hard I feared it would break off.   At times the wind would blow us up and he would level the plan directly into the wind again.  As the clouds past by, I could see trees off to our right side within 200 or 300 feet, maybe closer.   I turned to look at the pilot, he just looked straight ahead and kept talking on the radio.   As we continued, I noticed the pilot would not make many directional or altitude changes.   I had the sense he was being directed by something or someone.   Did this kid know what he was doing?   Then we started down, the clouds broke open and there was the airfield at Petersburg.   After getting out of the plane we entered an office where the pilot introduced me to his wife.   She asked me how I enjoyed the flight?    I told her it was a little rough and the weather made me nervous.   She said, you should not have worried as I was talking to my husband by radio and giving him directions based on GPS and most of what he learned was from his father.   As I walked out of the office to catch a ride into town, I noticed no planes coming or going, including those belonging to the older experienced pilots.