ANCHORAGE, Alaska — An Air Force colonel who is director of operations for Alaskan Command is one of two men missing after a small plane crashed into a remote lake, officials said Thursday.
Alaska Wildlife Troopers and Alaskan Command identified the men as Col. Mark “Tyson” Sletten, 46, of Anchorage, and Paul Kondrat, 41, of Utah.
They were aboard a small plane on an instructional flight that crashed Tuesday into Crescent Lake near Moose Pass on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula.
Alaskan Command, based at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, conducts homeland defense, civilian support and security missions. It is part of the US Northern Command.
A team from the Alaska Rescue Coordination Center, which includes volunteers from the Alaska Dive, Search, Rescue and Recovery Team, was searching the lake Thursday, trooper spokesman Austin McDaniel said in an email. He said the team used sonar, remotely operated vehicles and trained divers to search previously identified areas of interest in the lake, which is more than 200 feet deep in some areas.
Two hikers had informed troopers that they had seen a plane crash at Crescent Lake near Moose Pass on Tuesday afternoon.
An Alaska Department of Public Safety helicopter and a U.S. Fish and Wildlife floatplane went to the area and found debris on the lake, but no signs of survivors in the water or on shore.
Moose Pass is located about 100 miles south of Anchorage.
