Rescue continues after Air Force colonel and flight instructor presumed dead in plane crash on Kenai Peninsula

Recovery efforts continued Thursday after a floatplane crashed into a lake near Moose Pass on Tuesday, presumably killing a U.S. Air Force colonel with the Alaska Command and a flight instructor from Utah.

A crew was working Thursday at Crescent Lake to locate Mark “Tyson” Sletten of Anchorage, Paul Kondrat of Utah and the float-equipped Piper PA-18 Super Cub, said Austin McDaniel, a spokesman for Alaska State Troopers.

“A team from the Alaska Rescue Coordination Center, which includes professional volunteers from the Alaska Dive, Search, Rescue and Recovery Team, is searching the lake today,” McDaniel said. “The team is using sonar equipment, remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and trained divers to search the areas of interest identified during yesterday’s search.”

According to McDaniel, the lake is over 200 feet deep in some places.

Sletten, 46, was the chief of operations at Alaskan Command, the agency said in a statement. Alaskan Command, which is headquartered at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, is responsible for homeland defense, civilian support, mission assurance and security cooperation, according to the base’s website. Online reports said Sletten was a fighter pilot who had previously served as commander of the Air Force’s 8th Fighter Squadron in New Mexico.

Two hikers observed the crash and reported it to police shortly after 2:10 p.m., the agency said. Authorities were on the scene with a helicopter and a seaplane on Tuesday and saw debris in the lake but found no signs of survivors.

A plane that took off from Moose Pass was overdue, McDaniel said. The training flight was supposed to return to Moose Pass, he said.

The plane was operated by Alaska Float Ratings, which is jointly owned with Scenic Mountain Air, according to Clint Johnson, chief of the National Transportation Safety Board’s Alaska office. Kondrat, 41, was a certified flight instructor with Alaska Float Ratings, according to his LinkedIn page.

The NTSB will investigate the crash.

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