On December 7, 2016, 25-year-old pilot Kyle Longerbeam departed Port Alsworth, Alaska, in a single-engine Piper PA-28 Cherokee bound for Anchorage. He was carrying three members of the Blom family — Scott and his two children, Kaitlyn and Zachary — for a state volleyball championship. The roughly ninety-minute flight never reached its destination and all four aboard vanished.

Searchers found debris in Lake Clark the next day, including the plane’s co-pilot seat, three wheels, and personal items, but the main wreckage and the occupants were never located. Weather along the route included low-lying freezing fog and reduced visibility; Longerbeam was not rated for instrument flight. The National Transportation Safety Board investigated but could not determine a definitive cause because the key wreckage was not recovered. The families and the Port Alsworth community continue to face uncertainty over what happened.

Did anyone in the area at the time see or hear anything unusual along the flight path over Lake Clark?