Missing Pilot Found In Alaska After Five Days

Michael Holman, missing for five days after his Maule MT-7 disappeared Monday, was said to be in good physical shape and was staying in a cabin on Dogfish Bay, AK.

As it turns out, Holman was outside of the 4,000 square-mile search area where crews fought wind, fog and snow as they looked for him. But a Coast Guard C-130 crew on a training exercise picked up Holman's call for help -- one of the crewmembers heard it on his handheld marine band radio, according to officials. Soon after, they spotted a bonfire Holman had built as a signal.

Holman said he had plenty of food and was in good spirits. That's a good thing, because high winds and impending nightfall forced authorities to abandon plans to pick Holman up on Saturday. He was to be retrieved by a National Guard team on Sunday -- and that's when the officials hope to fill in the blanks about his disappearance.

For instance, where is his MT-7 (file photo of type, above)? There were some reports that indicated the Maule was either destroyed, sank or was washed away.

The 46-year old Holman, from Wasilla, AK, was flying from Palmer to Seldovia Monday when his aircraft went down. "I've been saying all along we had to be optimistic," said Major Chris Kobi at the National Guard's Rescue Coordination Center. "So many of these cases have very, very strange outcomes, you just can't write them off."

FMI: www.sarsat.noaa.gov/rcc.html