The pilot who died in a mid-June plane crash was identified by Alaska State Troopers on Tuesday as 51-year-old California resident Michael Grimes.
The Piper Pacer that Grimes was flying between Yakutat and Fairbanks was reported overdue the evening of June 18, troopers said in an earlier statement. An Alaska Air National Guard helicopter crew located the plane the next day about 40 miles southeast of Cordova in a mountainous area near Kanak Island, troopers said. Grimes was found dead in the wreckage.
Grimes was from the Bay Area and was a father of two daughters, according to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash. The agency had not released a preliminary report as of Tuesday.