Maria Teresa Libacka, 57, was one of five people aboard a sightseeing flight that disappeared on August 4, 2018, after departing Talkeetna for a Denali National Park glacier tour. The de Havilland DHC-2 Beaver, operated by K2 Aviation and piloted by Craig Layson, vanished from satellite tracking about 5:45 p.m. after flying near the Denali summit. The pilot made two brief satellite phone calls after the crash reporting injuries before contact was lost.

Two days later National Park Service crews located the wreckage on a knife-edge ridge of Thunder Mountain at about 11,000 feet, the plane broken and filled with snow inside a deep crevasse on a hanging glacier roughly 14 miles from Denali’s summit. Weather, avalanche danger and unstable wreckage prevented recovery, and a National Park Service ranger who made brief approaches confirmed all five occupants were deceased inside the aircraft. The NTSB determined the crash was an impact with terrain for reasons that could not be determined because the wreckage was never recovered.

If anyone was on the mountain that week or has information about the flight or its final approach, please share what is known.