What happened
Approximately 20 minutes into a VFR flight from Valdez to Palmer, Alaska, the pilot reported that the engine was running roughly and that smoke had entered the cabin. Roughly one minute after this initial report, the pilot declared an emergency, stating that visibility inside the cockpit was being lost due to the accumulating smoke.
Following the emergency declaration, radio contact with the aircraft was lost. It was presumed that the aircraft crashed in Prince William Sound near Glacier Island, located approximately 30 miles west-southwest of its departure point.
Four days after the disappearance, the body of the passenger was recovered from the water in the vicinity of the suspected crash site. A post-mortem examination determined that the passenger had drowned. On September 10, 1990, investigators located a 4-foot section of one of the aircraft's wings on a beach approximately 2.5 miles from where the passenger's body had been found.