A teenager has been killed alongside a pilot in a horror plane crash in remote mountains.
Connor Helsel, 18, and Cabot Pitts, 42, died after their Piper Cub went down shortly after taking off from a dirt airstrip.
The pair were the only people on board the small aircraft when it crashed in the remote Alaskan wilderness.
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Connor, from Michigan, had travelled to Alaska after finishing high school to work for experienced pilot and hunting guide, Pitts.
The pair were travelling between hunting camps when tragedy struck, as reported by Need To Know.
Alaska State Troopers received a report of the crash in the Nabesna area at around 7.51pm on 17 September.
Both Connor and Pitts, of Palmer, Alaska, were confirmed dead.
The aircraft had taken off from a dirt airstrip near Snag Creek in the Wrangell Mountains before crashing.
The site was around 50 miles from Nabesna in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve.
There were no eyewitnesses and investigators have not yet established what caused the aircraft to go down.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating.
Connor was one of six children and had grown up hunting and fishing in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
He graduated from high school in May and had set his sights on travelling to Alaska to work in the wilderness.
His dad, Herb Helsel, said his son had been determined to secure a job there after being put in touch with Pitts around 18 months earlier.
He said: “When he knew that there possibly was an opportunity to go to Alaska to be a packer, that’s all he talked about from that day until he left.”
Connor hoped to work towards becoming an assistant hunting guide while also pursuing youth ministry.
His mum Courtney remembered him as the joker of the family who could lighten even difficult moments.
She said: “He was always the one who kept everybody calm and cool or cracked a joke, whether it was the appropriate moment or not.
“He got us laughing.”
His devastated dad added: “I sent you my best, my best.”
A fundraiser set up in Connor’s memory said he had been “living his dream” in Alaska and described the teenager as hardworking, adventurous and devoted to his family and faith.
Pitts was an experienced pilot and professional hunting guide who owned and operated Alaska Wild Wind Adventures.
He was also president of the Alaska Professional Hunters Association and was remembered as a husband and father.
Former passenger Wayne Wilson, a retired conservation officer and game warden, had flown with Pitts during a hunting trip earlier this year.
He described the pilot as someone who immediately made passengers feel at ease.
Wilson said: “When you first meet him, it’s like you’ve known him your whole life.”
During one of their previous flights, Pitts had reportedly spoken to Wilson about the dangers of aviation after the pair flew over the wreckage of another aircraft.
Wilson recalled Pitts telling him that if the same ever happened to him: “I’m doing what I love.”
He said there was “no doubt” that Pitts loved his work.
The Alaska State Troopers officially identified the victims after their next of kin had been informed.
The NTSB is investigating the cause of the fatal crash.
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