On Friday, November 29th, 2013, Era Alaska lost a brave pilot and 4 of the 9 passengers aboard the Cessna 208 Caravan. The flight, number 1453, took off from Bethel about 5:40 p.m. AKDT with nine passengers and the pilot, bound for Mountain Village then Saint Marys. Hageland Air was informed at 6:34 p.m. that the plane had crashed about four miles from the St. Marys airport. According to the passengers, the plane crashed without warning. “They were just flying over, and next thing they know, they were just falling straight out of the sky,” Lamont said. “The plane just dropped.” The aircraft came to rest in brush on the top of a hill, Lamont said. It appeared to have “hit its nose pretty hard — it didn’t look like a glide,” he said.

At Era Virtual Airways, we strive to mirror the Real World Era Alaska (with some other bonus flights also). When a tragic event like such occurs, we band together to honor the fallen. Our hearts and prayers go out to the families involved and to our Era Alaska Family. We will do a tribute flight starting Sunday December 7th, 2013 at 01:00GMT and repeat the flight every 4hrs. It will follow the same route the Era Flight 1453 was following. Details for the flight are below.


Title: Terry Hansen Tribute Flight
Date: Sunday, December 7th, 2013
Flight number: ERR TH1453
Flight Route: PABE -> PAMO -> PASM
Flight Times: 0100 GMT(2000 EST) ; 0500 GMT(0000 EST) ; 0900 GMT(0400 EST) ; 1300 GMT(0800 EST) ; 1700 GMT(1200 EST) ; 2100 GMT(1600EST)
Aircraft: Cessna 208 Caravan N12373
Weather: IF you plan to fly as this real world flight did, set your weather as follows: 300ft ceiling, 1mile visibility, Rain/Freezing Rain

We plan to make this a group flight and we plan to depart right at those times. We encourage everyone to hop on Teamspeak (IP: 209.247.83.121:9211) and visit the event channel. Also to make it more realistic and flying in formation (if we can get enough people to participate), we encourage our pilots to fly in VATSIM under VFR(don't worry...Alaska ATC in this area is very slim).

If you have any questions or comments regarding the flight, please post them below. We will try to answer them as quickly as we can.
Please let us know below if you will be attending and which time slot(s) you plan to attend. You may participate in the event as many times as you wish.

The Event has begun! Anyone interested may fly the event now. Teamspeak event channel is now open! Comment below if you are attending!

The event has been extended through Saturday December 14th, 2013. This will allow a whole week for pilots to fly the tribute flight. We hope everyone has a great time flying this route as well as our regularly scheduled routes!

Thanks Cam for setting this up for everyone and extending it as well. This way I will be able to fine time to do the flights my self. We always want to remember the great pilots of Era with the tough job they have in Alaska. RIP Terry Hansen

EVENT UPDATE: THE EVENT IS NOW CLOSED. Stats for the flight will be uploaded on here very soon. Thank you to all those who participated in the event!