Robert S. Herman was 32 when he disappeared after boarding a Civil Air Patrol Cessna 180 fitted with floats on September 2, 1981. He was a passenger; the pilot was Robert Lohman. The flight departed Yakutat bound for Sitka along a route that crosses dense forest, high mountains, and open waterways on the Gulf of Alaska.

The Cessna never arrived in Sitka and an immediate, extensive search of the presumed flight path and surrounding areas turned up no wreckage or trace of either man. Search efforts were eventually suspended, and no definitive conclusion about what happened can be drawn without physical evidence.

The disappearance remains unsolved and the families were left without answers. If anyone has information about that September 2, 1981 flight or remembers sightings in the Yakutat–Sitka corridor, please share what is known.