Flight ends in tragedy for heartbroken couple over 60 – Wilcox World Travel and Tours Presents

A husband and wife travelling through Alaska are thought to have crashed their light plane on purpose in an act of suicide.

Both in their early 60s, Mark and Cecilia Matter took to the skies in their light plane, before crashing into Marvel Creek Mountain.

A report that was released by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in June has found that the crash was likely “an act of suicide”.

Cecilia had been diagnosed with cancer and had recently been told that she didn’t have much longer to live.

“They were inseparable from the beginning,” Donna Slaugh, one of the Matters’ three children, said at the time of the incident.

Flying through the region was reportedly something that was regularly done by the couple, as they often made trips to a small mine near their home.

“We moved up [to the mine] as kids the day school got out, and we came down the day before school started,” said son Ivan.

“We stayed out there all summer long, worked every single day,” his sister adding, “rain or shine.”

The couple had been married for more than 40 years and ran the family business together.

The idea of losing his wife was too much for Mark to bear.

“Dad couldn’t function without Mum…He couldn’t fix himself meals or anything,” Ivan said.

“[She] was the lifeline of the family.”