On August 11, 1996, 41-year-old maritime pilot William Bill Cork boarded a white Grumman Turbine G-21A Goose, tail number N660PA, at Anderson Bay, Dillingham, Alaska. The Peninsula Airways flight departed about 4:10 PM for a roughly 20-minute run to Dutch Harbor after Cork had finished a job guiding the vessel Tai Ning. Low ceilings and dense fog were reported in the area that afternoon.

The aircraft never reached Dutch Harbor and was reported overdue, triggering a search that lasted four days. Search crews covered remote island coastlines and mountainous terrain before the U.S. Coast Guard suspended the official search on August 15, 1996. A piece of the airplane washed ashore on a beach in Constantine Bay, about six miles northeast of Unalaska, confirming the plane had gone down. The NTSB investigated but could not determine the cause due to lack of evidence. Both Cork and pilot Nichol Silas were presumed to have sustained fatal injuries.

Anyone who knew Cork, was in the Aleutians in August 1996, or has information about that flight is asked to come forward.