They've been called Alaska's cowboys, and life without them would range from difficult to impossible for those of us in the remote parts of Alaska that make up most of the state.

They're our bush pilots — the men and women who navigate the trackless wilderness between population hubs and the isolated communities we and thousands of other Alaskans call home.

They bring us everything from mail to grocery staples to visitors (when we're lucky enough to have them). With skill and confidence, these men and women navigate through weather that can change in a blink (it alternately was sunny, rained, snowed, hailed and rained again as I wrote this morning) and through winds most of us wouldn't even want to take a walk in. We complain a little among ourselves when the planes don't fly (earlier this year we went for over a week with no mail as our Brussels sprouts and other groceries languished in King Salmon) and we grumble when grounded flights mean truncated vacation time or a delay in friends reaching us.

But we understand — safety first. And we know that if it's possible to fly, the pilots serving Southwest Alaska — our pilots — will be in the air.

Yesterday we lost one.

By midafternoon word had swept through the village that a Grant Aviation plane — a Cessna Grand Caravan, the nine-seaters that are fairly standard in the Bush — had gone missing. It was en route from Port Heiden to Perryville (see map at end of article), scheduled to arrive at 2:15 p.m. At 2 p.m., just 15 minutes out of Perryville, the plane's Emergency Locator sounded. The pilot, making a cargo and mail run, was the aircraft's only passenger.

Soon afterward, a Coast Guard C-130 and an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter began combing the mountainsides, tundra and lakes around Chignik Lake. In fact, the chopper landed here to take aboard volunteers to serve as additional pairs of eyes out the helicopter's windows. At 5:49 p.m., 3,000 feet up on a steep mountainside at a place known as Windy Pass, the wreckage was spotted. A rescue swimmer was subsequently lowered to the crash site where he confirmed that the pilot had died. Given the difficult terrain and cloud cover, recovery of the pilot's body and the cargo he was carrying will be challenging.

Gabriele Cianetti, 54, the pilot of the downed Cessna 208B, touched many lives, including ours. Our thoughts and condolences go out to his family and friends as well as to his extended family at Grant Aviation. Additionally, our deep appreciation is extended to the men and women of the United States Coast Guard: Semper Paratus — always ready.

Jack Donachy is a writer and photographer whose credits include CNN iReport, Outdoor Photography Magazine and Alaska Magazine. He and his wife, Barbra, write about living off the beaten path in Chignik Lake at Cutterlight.com, where this piece first appeared on May 2. Some information included here was first reported by KTVA News and Alaska Dispatch News.