A pilot rescued with two young family members after they survived a night on the wing of an airplane partially submerged in an Alaska lake is a student pilot who was not authorized to fly with passengers, according to a U.S. official and federal aviation records.
The Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday started disciplinary action against the pilot, John Morris Jr., National Transportation Safety Board investigator Mark Ward told The Associated Press.
Morris has thus far not cooperated with federal investigators about what happened on the flight, Ward said. He has neither returned their calls nor reported the accident within the required 24-hour period.
“The FAA told me that he is a student pilot, he had no application in for a pilot’s license, and it appears he has a history of violating” the no passenger rule, Ward said. “At this point, we don’t know whether he landed purposely or for an emergency procedure, and he’s not talking to us,” Ward said.
Morris did not immediately respond to a message from The Associated Press seeking comment.
The plane was reported missing near Tustumena Lake on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula, about 80 miles (129 kilometers) southwest of Anchorage, on Sunday. One of about a dozen volunteer pilots who headed out in search of the plane Monday morning spotted it with the three survivors on the wing.
The Alaska Army National Guard launched a helicopter from Anchorage to rescue and deliver them to a nearby hospital for what officials said were non-life-threatening injuries.
