Children of Missing Dad Alan Foster
Helping Three Children of Missing Pilot Alan Foster: A College Fund In Memory of Alan…
Alan Foster, age 47 at the time of death, was flying a small airplane when he crashed and disappeared along the vast Alaskan coastal wilderness on September 9, 2013. Despite a huge search effort, Alan has never been found. In December 2013, a court trial was held, and all that his three promising children had for closure was a presumptive death certificate. Unfortunately, Alan also left behind no accidental death insurance, no life insurance, and no savings funds.
Alan was a well-known, good pilot among the Alaskan aviation community. He earned his pilot’s license when he was a teen, and he spent many years flying for various companies in Alaska: Mark Air, Era Aviation, (Big) ACE, (Little) Ace, Greatland Air Cargo, and a medivac plane out of Kotzebue. He was well-versed in IFR and VFR and had flown thousands of hours, including total darkness and bad weather conditions. He was very familiar with all common flight routes. Alan was definitely no stranger to the Alaskan skies and the land and water beneath his wings. It was a complete shock among hundreds of colleagues and friends when they heard the news of his fate.
In May of 2013, three months before he disappeared, Alan kissed his middle daughter, Katelyn, goodbye and hopped into a taxi cab, headed for the Anchorage airport. He was on a mission to the Lower 48 in search of a new business airplane, hopefully one that would help support his children’s future college education.
Alan, who was also a certified A&P mechanic, found a Piper Cherokee Six 260 in Georgia, and he planned to fly it back to his hometown Anchorage, AK. He had great conditions from Georgia to Washington State, but then the weather turned into its usual fall ugliness; cloudy, drizzly, windy. Alan decided to layover a few days in the Seattle area to patiently wait out the storms and visit with an old schoolmate. He shared many pictures and stories with his friend –mostly stories and pictures of his kids that he was missing badly after 3 months of being away.
Finally, the weather cleared, so Alan bid farewell to his buddy and took off towards the British Columbia coast. The scenery was beautiful, and he sent a few pictures of the Canadian mountains to his anxiously awaiting children while the kids returned goofy mug shots and “I miss you dad, please come home” messages.
His oldest daughter, Nikita (now age 18), was especially happy to hear that he was on his way because she was just starting her senior year of high school. She was excited that her father was going to bring her a new laptop for college preparations, and he was going to watch her play varsity flag football. There were so many things Nikita looked forward to having her dad celebrate with her, and there were other life-events she had not yet known of that he would miss: sports banquets, senior prom, Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) pinning ceremony, high school graduation, and moving to college.
His middle, junior daughter, Katelyn (now age 17), also looked forward to having him return to watch her swim/diving competitions; as little did she know that she would fly south to Juneau only two months after her father’s death to compete at State for the very first time. Juneau was one of the last few towns her father visited just hours before his death. Katelyn’s mother, Susan, was Katelyn’s only family supporter at the state dive meet, and Susan found herself often crowd-gazing, hoping to somehow miraculously spot Alan walking around dazed and confused as she kept thinking, “Maybe he’s alive, got turned around, is wandering, just lost his memory.” A sudden death plays funny tricks on the mind.
Erich, the youngest (now age 13) simply looked forward to playing catch and eating Pizza at Costco with his father. “Everyone at Costco knows my dad.” Erich would often brag. Costco was a place Alan frequented weekly to purchase food and supplies that he helped deliver to Bush Alaska villages. The small, remote communities adored Alan; after all half of his heritage was Alaska Native. “He was always so friendly, and we loved hearing him speak about his kids; how good they were doing in school and sports,” the villagers would say.
After flying past Canada, Alan had continued heading north along the famous Alaskan Coastal Route. He stopped in Ketchikan and checked on the weather again and filed an updated flight plan. A stop at Juneau, then one more fuel stop at Yakutat, then finally home to Anchorage.
Alan made it to Yakutat on the afternoon of Sept 9th, landed as expected, refueled, and once again checked with the local flight services regarding weather. It wasn’t looking too great far ahead, but it appeared fine enough to get traffic- control clearance for a take-off and head towards Cordova way. After chatting with a few other local pilots who had just landed or were leaving, Alan departed (VFR) from Yakutat. It was still daylight, and he was getting really anxious to see his children. They were only just a few hours away from him.
Sadly, Alan’s plane dropped off radar over the giant Malaspina Glacier, and was never detected again. An extensive search, including several Civil Air Patrol squadrons, Alaska State Troopers, US Coast Guard, Alaska Air National Guard, and the United States Air Force Rescue Coordination Center, was conducted until September 22nd, but they found nothing. In total, there were 197 searches: 57 aircraft that flew 84 sorties and accumulated 279.1 flight hours. Alan’s plane was not yet equipped with a 406 MHz ELT that could have possibly relayed his exact crash location to authorities, but he did have a common 121.5 MHz ELT/antenna system that was possibly damaged during the crash. At one point, some inaudible signals near other glaciers perplexed searchers while using all their high tech equipment, but they weren’t even able to determine the type of source of such a signal that was being detected in that remote, cell tower-less region. “Often times, interference can travel from afar,” military experts told us.
Moments before Alan’s disappearance, he had radioed another small-plane pilot (witness) who had taken off just behind him. Alan said, “I’m going to hug the coastline, and I will let you know about the weather as I go,” since the conditions had suddenly deteriorated. The witness pilot, who is forever grateful for Alan’s kindness, made it to Cordova. The witness said he even passed a few other small planes flying in the opposite direction as he went towards Cordova. The witness pilot said he flew just above the beach, keeping his eyes very focused on the ground below. At one point along the remote route, a bit past Malaspina Glacier, he heard Alan radio, “The weather is looking really bad up here.” Several minutes later, the witness pilot tried to check in with Alan again and again, but no response. He just figured Alan was going fast enough to get farther out of range.
Military search officials believe that Alan crashed in the vicinity of Cape Yakataga to Cape Suckling; perhaps in water or thick trees. It’s such a heartache because not even sports fisherman nor other grounded pilot-guides, dotted along the coastal beach, reported seeing or hearing Alan fly overhead that rainy day.
Now, it’s been a year and some months since Alan went missing. Everyone misses him dearly, including all of his hockey-playing buddies in Anchorage. Alan was an iconic figure on the men’s league skating rink, wearing his silly mullet wig under his helmet. He wanted to make people laugh, and he did. “Just be happy,” was his life’s motto.
Nikita has completed her first year of college with a 3.8 GPA thus far. She took advantage while still in high school to obtain her CNA certificate at the King Career Center before she graduated. She then yearned to leave dark, cold Alaska to enroll at Eastern Washington University (on reduced WUE tuition) this past fall. She is now transferring to the University of Alaska Anchorage for this Fall 2015. She will be using the Alaska Performance Scholarship to help pay for some of her UAA tuition. Nikita is also currently working in the Mat-Su area to help pay for college. Nikita states, “I’m not exactly sure of my major yet, I just want to find a career where I will be helping to care for others.” She has a heart of gold.
Katelyn, currently sporting a 4.0 GPA as a high school senior, has her entire heart and soul set on attending Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in Georgia, hopefully this coming fall. Based on her outstanding academics, Katelyn has already been accepted to this competitive, non-profit, private art school where she wants to study animation; industry executives (job recruiters) make strong connections with students at this college. Katelyn was immediately offered at $40,000/4 year SCAD academic scholarship, but the annual tuition alone costs around $33,000. She feels that for her skills and talent that she doesn’t want to settle for any ordinary university; she is very determined to attend an outstanding art school to secure a wonderful animation career. However, her alternate plan is to attend UAA for a year or two, where she has earned a UA Scholar's Award, then transfer to SCAD as she saves up enough job and scholarship funds to do so.
Susan, their mother, has been spending hours and weekends helping her daughters apply for scholarships for two years now around their very busy, academic/sports/work schedules. “We’re still trying to push on- I’m hoping that my girls will be rewarded with enough scholarships to help allow them to pursue their ultimate dreams. They are outstanding citizens and certainly demonstrate it by pushing on themselves, even in the midst of family tragedy.” The girls will definitely apply for distant and local Native scholarships, but these funds usually help out just a bit compared to the huge costs of college and dorm life.
Our scholarship funds goal is to reach $15,000 by June 30, 2015. We’re typically not inclined to ask for help, but we know there are a lot of good-hearted people in the world who can and love to help, especially when there has been an accidental death of a father/pilot/colleague/friend. More importantly, after months of contemplating, we finally decided that at least setting up a college fund for Alan’s children is a decent, proper way to honor his life and the happiness and success he wished upon his kids, despite the common mistake he made by not having certain insurances.
When a father flying a plane suddenly goes missing and is presumed dead, it’s very difficult to come to terms: to this day, not even a memorial service has been held, and we know that many people have anticipated one. Like we said, it’s time to take a step to at least do something in honor of Alan. It seems appropriate and good timing to establish a college fund that can give his children a chance to carry on a legacy of gaining solid preparation for future careers. We have privately grieved, watched our “old” family home videos, and have reminisced many a times over Alan. We hope to plan a nice memorial camping/picnic day this summer to share stories about Alan and emotionally support his children for the loss of their dearly missed father.
Thank you everyone for all that you do, and thank you if you share our campaign on Facebook.
God Bless,
Erich, Katelyn, Susan, and Nikita
Children, Left to Right (photo taken Feb. 2014)
Erich: "I want to become a game designer."
Katelyn: "I want to have an art career in the animation industry."
Nikita: "I want to have a career where I can help care for others. I'm interested in the medical field."