SITKA, Alaska — There still is no trace of a missing floatplane as the search for it and its five occupants — including a North Olympic Peninsula resident — enters its sixth day today in southeast Alaska.
Coast Guard officials had hoped a break in the weather Friday would turn up signs of the plane’s passage, but flyovers of mountain passes yielded nothing, according to Lt. Matt Moorlag at the Coast Guard’s Juneau command center.
The search by Coast Guard, Civil Air Patrol and private aircraft continued Saturday.
Wind gusts of up to 50 mph were expected in the area by Saturday evening, which could hamper the search today.
“So we’re trying to search as much as we possibly can with the weather window we have today,” Moorlag said Saturday.
Those on board are Jim Murphy of Gardiner; his twin brother Joe Murphy of Bremerton, senior vice president of the Washington State Labor Council; Jerry Balmer of Auburn, Calif.; Lloyd Koenig of Pleasanton, Calif.; and pilot Eric Johnson, who flies for Harris Air Services of Sitka.