Passenger recalls emergency plane landing near Alaska island

JUNEAU, Alaska – Luck Dunbar was napping during a routine flight when he heard a loud noise, woke up and realized the commuter plane was dropping.

Dunbar was one of five people aboard the plane Monday morning when it was heading from Skagway to Juneau, Haines radio station KHNS reported (http://bit.ly/2w6x2qD). An engine failure prompted pilot Joshua Poirier to make an emergency landing in the ocean.

“(Poirier) pointed over by Coghlan Island and he said, ‘I think we’re going to lay her down over here,’” Dunbar said.

As the plane dropped, Dunbar said he was thinking, “This is it. … Here we go.”

Poirier was able to keep the plane’s tip out of the water upon landing.

“Josh, the pilot, did an amazing job,” Dunbar said. “We hit the water as slow as that plane could fly. Still keeping the nose up. By the time the nose hit we had lost enough momentum where we didn’t flip the plane.”

Everyone scrambled to unbuckle after the plane landed in water about 150 feet (46 metres) from Coghlan Island, Dunbar said. All five people then swam to shore and were rescued uninjured.

“We swam and swam and swam,” Dunbar said. “Not going to lie, by the time I got to the beach I was pretty exhausted. I had too many layers on. I was feeling pretty heavy, feeling pretty blessed to just relax and have my feet touch the sand of the beach of Coghlan Island.”

Alaska Seaplanes aircraft equipped with floats responded to the scene and retrieved the four passengers, troopers said. Poirier stayed on the beach and was later picked up by Coastal Helicopters.

“He instructed us on exactly what to do at the proper time,” Dunbar said. “We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Josh.”

After being flown to safety by authorities, Dunbar got on yet another plane to finish his trip to Sitka, where his commercial fishing boat resides.

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This story has been corrected to show the name of passenger is Luck Dunbar, not Luke, and corrects attribution to KHNS.