Guardian Flight ends search for plane crash victims

Published 3:00 am Thursday, March 28, 2019

ANCHORAGE — The owners of an air ambulance that crashed in Alaska have ended a private search for the three employees.

Officials with Utah-based Guardian Flight say the search ended Wednesday after covering 7 square miles of ocean floor and traversing more than 700 linear miles by ship.

[Photos: Hundreds turn out for Guardian Flight vigil]

Company spokesman Jim Gregory said searchers will continue to look along the shoreline.

Pilot Patrick Coyle, flight nurse Stacie Rae Morse and flight paramedic Margaret Langston were Guardian Flight employees based in Juneau. Morse was pregnant with a child she planned to name Delta Rae.

Searchers earlier found most of the plane wreckage, including the cockpit voice recorder, over a large debris field in Frederick Sound.

The King Air 200 disappeared Jan. 29 flying to pick up a patient in the Southeast community of Kake. The pilot, flight nurse and flight paramedic were Guardian Flight employees.

The Coast Guard searched hundreds of square miles before suspending its search Jan. 31.

• This is an Associated Press report.