On August 12, 1989, 60-year-old James Slaybaugh was one of four people aboard a Cessna N1211V that departed the Caribou Creek area near King Mountain and never arrived at its destination. The other men aboard were Edgar McCrary, Robert Horn, and Richard Floyd. Initial searches turned up nothing in the rugged Alaskan terrain.

A year later, on August 16, 1990, wreckage from the Cessna was found in a ravine about one mile southwest of Hicks Lake. The discovery confirmed the aircraft had crashed, but the remains of Slaybaugh and the three companions were not recovered from the site. The cause of the crash and why the occupants were not found with the wreckage remain unanswered.

Did anyone in the area at the time remember hearing or seeing a small aircraft around August 12, 1989?