UPDATE: Pilot found alive after small plane crash near Goodnews Bay

The pilot and sole occupant of a Cessna 207 Skywagon airplane was found alive after the aircraft crashed near Goodnews Bay on Friday afternoon, according to the Alaska Army National Guard.

Alaska State Troopers say the wreckage of the plane was discovered by a pilot participating in a search when the aircraft was reported overdue at around 1:30 p.m.

“Another pilot landed nearby and reported back that the pilot was injured,” troopers wrote.

The Rescue Coordination Center was contacted and an Army National Guard crew stationed in Bethel and two local EMTs responded to the crash with a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, according to guard spokesperson Lt. Col Candis Olmstead.

“At 4:50 p.m., the UH-60 arrived at the crash site 93 miles south of Bethel,” Olmstead told Channel 2 in an email. “EMTs tended to and stabilized the patient, who was found with facial and spinal injuries. They departed the crash site at 5:30 p.m.”

The injured pilot was transported to Bethel and then transferred onto a LifeMed jet for transportation to Anchorage, Olmstead said.

An active rescue operation is underway following a small plane crash near Goodnews Bay in Western Alaska, according to NTSB spokesman Clint Johnson.

Johnson said the agency was notified of a missing Cessna out of Bethel at around 2 p.m. Search teams located wreckage from the aircraft at around 3:15 p.m.

Johnson could not immediately confirm the number of people on board the aircraft or the severity of any injuries.