Joseph Earl Murphy, Jr., 64, disappeared on a floatplane flight from Sitka to Baranof Warm Springs Lodge on September 20, 2004, while on a fishing trip with his twin brother James and three other men. The de Havilland DHC-2 Beaver, piloted by 25-year-old Erik Johnson, took a longer coastal route because of wind and rain, and never arrived at the lodge. The aircraft carried an emergency locator transmitter, but no distress signal was ever detected.

An extensive nine-day search by the U.S. Coast Guard, Civil Air Patrol, and civilian volunteers covered the rugged islands and waterways between Sitka and Warm Springs Bay, but no wreckage or signs of the plane or its five occupants were found. The official search was suspended, and the men’s fate has been left unresolved; their disappearances are officially presumed to stem from a fatal crash at an unknown location.

If anyone was in the Sitka area on or about September 20, 2004, or has information about travel by Harris Aircraft Services on that route that day, please share what is known.