On July 28, 2006, 53-year-old Ralph Gordon Aiken, Jr. was one of three men who vanished during a short flight from Kenai, Alaska. He was aboard a blue-and-white, four-seat Aero Commander bound for Anchorage with Ricky Posusta and Ian Beer; the trip was reportedly for area familiarization and involved low-altitude flying. The flight left Kenai at about 8:10 p.m., last communicated with at 8:30 p.m., and the FAA declared the aircraft overdue at 12:30 a.m. the next morning.

Radar and satellite tracking placed the aircraft over Cook Inlet roughly three miles offshore and showed it flying at low altitude before contact was lost. An extensive search by the Civil Air Patrol, Alaska State Troopers, and the Coast Guard turned up no wreckage or occupants. No flight plan had been filed and no emergency locator transmitter signal was detected. The NTSB report presumes the aircraft crashed and was destroyed, but the plane and the three men have never been located and the families remain without answers.

If anyone was flying in Cook Inlet that night or has information about low-altitude flights out of Kenai on July 28, 2006, please share what is known.