On July 29, 1995, 20-year-old pilot Richard Lindner was flying a white twin-engine Cessna 421C, tail number N800DD, from Juneau to King Salmon with passengers Allen Gelin and Mark Pickar. Lindner reported trouble with the right engine and said he intended to make an emergency landing on Middleton Island in Prince William Sound. That was the last radio contact. Radar showed the aircraft passing southeast of the island while losing altitude, then contact was lost.

Rescue crews that day reported bubbles, an oil slick, and possible debris about three miles south of the Middleton Island airport, but the main wreckage and the three men were not located during the initial search. On September 29, 1996, the Cessna wreckage was found on Middleton Island; a search of the site recovered no trace of Lindner, Gelin, or Pickar. The NTSB concluded the probable cause was mechanical loss of engine power for unknown reasons, with the airplane colliding with the water.

What details about the flight, the engine trouble, or the postcrash search could help explain why none of the occupants were ever located?