Pilot Cabot Pitts, 42, and passenger Connor Helsel, 18, died when their Piper Cub crashed after taking off from a dirt airstrip near Nabesna in Alaska’s Wrangell Mountains on Sept. 17; the NTSB has been notified and will investigate the cause.
The Anchorage Daily News reported that recent aviation accidents in Alaska killed at least 16 people over the past month. Eight died in an Aug. 20 crash, four in a crash near Seldovia about a week later, and two in a Sept. 15 crash near Aniak.
Pitts owned and operated Alaska Wild Wind Adventures and was a licensed guide; his clients told WIBW he was also president of the Alaska Professional Hunters Association. Helsel’s parents told the station he moved from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to Alaska after graduating to work as a packer.
