On December 11, 1974, 25-year-old Alaska State Trooper Frank Rodman was aboard a Kodiak Western Airlines Grumman Goose seaplane that crashed into Chiniak Bay near Cape Chiniak, just minutes from its scheduled landing in Kodiak. The flight was carrying five people, including fellow Trooper Larry Carr, age 23, and pilot Larry Carr, and was returning with the body of a drowning victim. Search and rescue operations followed but after several days were suspended when no trace of the aircraft was found.

Only two of the five occupants’ bodies were recovered; the wreckage of the plane was never located and the cause of the crash remains undetermined. Rodman had served with the Alaska State Troopers for two months and previously worked for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and the Kodiak Police Department. He was survived by his wife, daughter, two stepsons, his mother, and a sister.

Does anyone have memories of the Kodiak community in 1974 or information about the search that could shed light on what happened that day?