Mark Sletten, an Alaskan Air Force Colonel, was caught in a Piper PA-18 plane as it crashed in Crescent Lake. Alongside him was Utah resident, Paul Kondrat. Sletten directed the state's largest defense and rescue mission network as head of the Alaska Command, headquartered on JBER and operated under the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). Per KTUU, his plane went down on the Kenai Peninsula on Tuesday (6/18).
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Reportedly, Alaska Wildlife Troopers relayed that two hikers saw the plane crash into the lake. Troopers deployed a rescue helicopter with help from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to the area, where they found debris in the lake with "no survivors in the water or on the shore."
An Alaska Air National Guard rescue team couldn't find Sletten or Kondrat upon reaching the site. Search teams scoured the area in and around the lake all day Wednesday with helicopters, divers, sonar, and boats. They found parts and pieces of the plane, but most of the wreckage sunk into the lake.
Clint Johnson, the Alaska regional chief of the National Transportation and Safety Board, would offer a comment.
"We don't know how deep the airplane is," Johnson stated. "There were some witnesses at Crescent Lake that apparently saw this accident. The NTSB is in the process of trying to talk with those witnesses to get a good account of what they saw. But my understanding is they're still in the field. Hopefully, that'll take place by the end of the day."
