On July 3, 1997, 51-year-old John Louis Blanda was one of six people aboard a sightseeing Piper PA-32 operated by Haines Airways when the airplane lost engine power about 1,200 feet over Taiya Inlet and ditched in frigid 39-degree water roughly 100 feet from the steep western shoreline. All six occupants evacuated before the aircraft sank; a nearby tour helicopter dropped life vests and a second helicopter arrived within ten minutes to recover survivors.

The pilot and one passenger were rescued and two passengers were recovered deceased from the water. John Blanda and 60-year-old Joseph J. Leblanc, Jr. were never found despite an extensive search. The NTSB determined the probable cause was jamming of the left magneto impulse coupling. Few details are available about the last moments before the ditching and the search that followed.

If anyone was on that tour, nearby onshore, or has information about the search or these missing men, please share what is known.