Plane crash kills ‘Flying Wild Alaska’ pilot Jim Tweto and Idaho hunt guide
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Bush pilot Jim Tweto, best known for his starring role on the Discovery Channel series “Flying Wild Alaska,” was killed along with an Idaho hunting and fishing guide when their small plane shortly after takeoff from the… State of Alaska crashed, the soldiers said.
Tweto’s family-run rural aviation business in Unalakleet was featured in three seasons of the television series a decade ago. He and his passenger, Shane Reynolds, of Orofino, Idaho, died Friday near the coastal village of Shaktoolik, about 125 miles (200 kilometers) east of Nome, the statement said.
Their report said the plane was “observed taking off but not climbing and then crashing”. Soldiers were notified of an SOS activation around 11:48 a.m. Friday, followed by reports that a Cessna 180 had crashed 35 miles northeast of Shaktoolik.
Police officers arriving from Nome recovered both bodies. The National Transportation Safety Board said it was investigating.
The Anchorage Daily News reported that Tweto co-owned Hageland Aviation Services and then Era Alaska, which would later become Rayn Air Group; Reynolds led Northwest Fishing Expeditions for years, guiding clients in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest.
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Tweto, 68, died doing what he loved, his daughter Ariel posted on Instagram. She called Reynolds, 45, “a wonderful guide and friend of our family.”
Tweto was born in Kansas and raised in Minnesota. He came to Alaska to play Anchorage hockey at the University of Alaska and settled in Unalakleet, where he met his wife, Ferno. The couple and their three daughters were featured in the Discovery series, which aired in 2011-2012.
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