An Alaska Seaplanes aircraft made an emergency landing in the Mendenhall River in Juneau late Thursday morning, amid the glacial outburst flood. No injuries were reported.
The de Havilland Beaver landed at the mouth of the river immediately after takeoff from the float plane pond at the Juneau International Airport around 11:17 a.m.
“There was just one pilot on board. He was actually doing a test flight, so no passengers were affected. He landed safely on Mendenhall River,” said Alaska Seaplanes Marketing Manager Andy Kline in a phone interview with KTOO.
During the emergency landing, Mendenhall Lake was at moderate flood stage, at around 13.91 feet.
“It floated around for a while, but it eventually ended up on a root ball, and that’s where it still is right now, caught up on a root ball in Mendenhall River,” Kline said.
The cause of the emergency landing is not immediately known, only that there was a mechanical issue, said Kline.
The company’s three other de Havilland Beavers are temporarily grounded, too.
“We’re waiting to make sure that there’s not a systematic issue, which we don’t think there is,” Kline said. “But we’re just taking all the precautions necessary.”
John Fortin was walking his dog around the same time the plane went down on what’s locally called the “Bad Dog Wetlands Trail” or the “Naughty Dog Trail” at the end of Industrial Boulevard around the time of the landing.
“I was over along Mendenhall Peninsula at the very end of the Naughty Dog Trail, and I just saw the wing come up, and I was like, ‘Holy crap!’” he said.
He saw a group of several people responding to the emergency landing, including Capital City Fire Rescue personnel.
“They came across from the [Emergency Vehicle Access Road] Trail, and then I watched the rescue guys – they were trying to figure out how to get the boat in to get the pilot off the plane,” he said. “And the tide was coming up, and yeah, it was getting kind of exciting.”
CCFR resources were briefly pulled to respond to the crash but later returned to support the flood response, according to City and Borough of Juneau Emergency Programs Manager Ryan O’Shaughnessy.
No Juneau Police Department resources were pulled from the glacial outburst flood response to assist with the incident, he said via text. The Federal Aviation Administration has confirmed there is no impact on aviation operation, O’Shaughnessy added.
Alaska Seaplanes is actively working to recover the plane from the Mendenhall River. Kline texted that Seaplanes scheduled a Temsco helicopter this afternoon to sling it out of the river.
