On July 25, 1984, 44-year-old Donald Gabbert was one of five men who boarded a chartered twin-engine Cessna 401B, registration N7984Q, at Anchorage International Airport for a roughly one-hour flight to Cantwell. The passengers were employees of Newberry Alaska on an inspection trip related to the Alaska Power Authority intertie between Fairbanks and Anchorage. Also on board were Gerald Dalrymple, Jack Dickey, Gordon Newstrom and pilot Keith Newstrom.

The flight departed at 7:31 a.m. on a company VFR flight plan. The pilot had received weather briefings that morning indicating VFR conditions but noting possible marginal weather along the route; an updated briefing before departure reported IFR conditions at Cantwell. After takeoff there were no further communications and the aircraft never reached its destination. An extensive search found no trace of the plane or its five occupants.

Newberry Alaska offered a $5,000 reward after the search was suspended. The pilot’s father, Gordon Newstrom, spent seven years flying over the Alaskan wilderness looking for wreckage but turned up no clues. The National Transportation Safety Board concluded the reason for the occurrence was undetermined, and the final movements of Donald Gabbert and the other men remain unknown.

If anyone has information about that July 25, 1984 flight or remembers seeing the Cessna N7984Q, please come forward.