The pilot of a plane that crashed Friday on frozen tundra in southwestern Alaska lived in Whitefish for 18 years and learned how to fly at Kalispell City Airport.

Terry Hansen, 68, was piloting the small Cessna 208 that went down in foggy, frigid weather near the village of St. Marys, killing Hansen and three other people on board.

Six people survived the crash, which made national headlines. A 5-month-old baby was among those who perished. The baby’s mother is being hailed as a hero, according to the Anchorage Daily News, because she left her fatally injured son to hike a mile toward lights in the nearest village to lead a rescue team to the crash site.

Hansen, a native of Clear Lake, Iowa, moved to Whitefish in 1977, drawn to the Flathead Valley by his love of the outdoors. 

He hadn’t been here long before he went to work as a guide for Joe Basirico’s whitewater rafting company, Rocky Mountain Rafting. Hansen became a partner in the business in 1979; they sold the business in 1982. Today the company is known as Montana Raft Co./Glacier Wilderness Guides.

“He was a thoughtful, enthusiastic outdoorsman who was always wanting to find out something new,” Basirico said Monday.

Basirico said Hansen immediately was hooked on river rafting and the two of them took private groups on rivers all over the United States.

“I can remember the exact minute he had an epiphany he was going to be a pilot,” Basirico recalled. “It was on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River. We were taking a group down the river. We landed on this short grass airstrip.

“I remember like it was yesterday. He got out of the plane with a big grin and said, ‘That’s what I’m going to do next — fly planes.’ And he did.”

Hansen earned his private pilot’s license at Kalispell City Airport and worked as a charter pilot in Montana until he moved to western Alaska in 1995. He became a commercial pilot in Alaska and was flying for Hageland Aviation, owned by Era Alaska, at the time of his death.

“I’d see him every now and then and we’d catch up,” Basirico said. “He was happy up there.”

Hansen’s parents, Irene and the late Ray Hansen, moved to Whitefish in 1979. His mother, 90, said the news of her son’s death was a terrible shock. Hansen’s brother, Tommy, lives in Kalispell.

“He was very quiet and very smart,” Irene said about Terry.  

She remembered a special time at Christmas a couple of years ago when Tommy coerced Terry into wearing a comical stovepipe hat with a Santa wedged into one end. It was one of the rare occasions when Terry let loose and goofed around.

“I’ll treasure that,” she said.

Hansen had been flying out of Bethel but had just transferred back to the St. Marys airport, his mother said. He lived in St. Marys with his longtime partner, Joanne Long.

During his time in Whitefish, Hansen worked for several years in the maintenance department at North Valley Hospital.

He was a Navy veteran who served four tours in Vietnam. One of his fellow combat soldiers, Reg Peratrovich, who’s also a pilot, was quoted in the Anchorage newspaper, saying, “Terry was definitely loved on all levels, personally and professionally.”

After his military service, Hansen got a degree in accounting and worked as an accountant for a couple of years in Mason City, Iowa, before heading to the Flathead Valley.

His last trip home to Whitefish was in August 2012 to celebrate his 67th birthday.

“After he turned 65 I kept asking him if he was going to retire,” he mother recalled. “He said he’d keep flying as long as they would let him.

“They’ve all praised him,” she said about his co-workers. “They said he was an excellent pilot.”

Investigators are examining the wreckage of the downed plane to determine what caused the crash, and also are checking maintenance records for the aircraft.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.