Dates

• Existence: 1902 - 1956

Biographical Note: Hakon Christensen

Hakon Christensen was a Danish aviator who set up a flying service in Alaska in 1934.

Christensen was born in Pastbro, Denmark on May 30, 1902. He learned to fly in 1917 in Iowa and later performed as a barnstormer in the midwest United States. In 1933, he sold his plane to Ed Lerdahl of Fairbanks, Alaska and went to Alaska from Iowa to fly it for him. Christensen set up his own charter flight service in Cantwell, Alaska in 1934, flying between Peters Creek Mine, Valdez Creek Mine, Fairbanks, and Anchorage with a Curtiss Robin. He moved his business to Anchorage in 1940 and extended service to Seward. At that poing he flew a Grumman Widgeon. He was one of the first pilots to land mountain climbing expeditions on Mt. McKinley. Christensen sold his business in 1952 and began a new air service.

Christenson and his passenger, Anchorage businessman E. Wells Ervin, died in an airplane crash near Cordova on April 9, 1956 in a snow storm on a flight from Seattle to Cordova with a stop in Yakutat. He is buried in Anchorage.

Biographical information derived from

• "Hakon Christensen film" https://archives.consortiumlibrary.org/collections/specialcollections/hmc-0089/, accessed July 2, 2021.
• "More Alaska Bush Pilot Information" http://www.alaskabushpilot.org/MyMoreAKPilots01.html Accessed July 2, 2021.

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