Whitehorse, Jan. 31. - Four persons were killed in a plane crash 99
miles from here yesterday in the most serious transportation disaster as yet known in the Yukon. The dead are: Lawrence Muehleisen, pilot, formerly of Glendale, California; Archie King, diesel engineer at North Fork Dawson for the Yukon Consolidated Gold Corporation; Charlie Larsen of Dawson, an associate in the dredging business with Ed Holbrook; and J. H. Muralt, Who was enroute from Prince George to Dawson to join a friend.
The plane, the property of International Airways, left Skagway yesterday morning enroute to Dawson with Pilot Muehleisen at the controls. At approximately 11:45 the crash was heard by section workers of the White Pass & Yukon Rly. at the Summit, who immediately left for the scene of the disaster, about one-half mile south.
The plane was found on the roof of the snowshed and had apparently collided about 25 feet above with such force that one wheel remained imbedded in a crevice on the shed. When the fuselage was cut away it was found that all four of the occupants were lifeless. The plane was completely demolished by the impact.
While the cause of the disaster will never be really known, it is the general opinion of other fliers that the pilot was flying low owing to poor visibility and hit an air pocket, causing the machine to drop suddenly and collide head-on into the snowshed.
The pilot, Lawrence Muehleisen leaves a wife and two children in Skagway; Archie King leaves a mother in Kentville, Nova Scotia and Chas. Larsen leaves a wife and children at Oakland, California.
