Mason McLeod, his two coworkers at the National Park Service and their pilot were reported missing after it failed to arrive in the town of King Salmon as expected an hour after takeoff.
The NPS scaled back their search efforts for the missing plane on Sept. 3 after logging nearly 60,000 miles with still no sign of the four men.
There is now a $65,000 reward being offered to anyone who can give the families an idea of where their plane could be.
Mason's parents are continuing their own search for their missing son through the help of volunteer pilots.
Lawanda Hill, a close family friend, has kept in close contact with Mason's parents throughout.
"We're not ready to think of where they might be. We're trying to stay focused on the fact that they're survivors, they're park rangers, they know how to survive in the wilderness and that's what we're holding on to," Hill said.
Friends and family have since started a website to help raise donations for the cost of the fuel for those volunteer pilots: bringmasonhome.myevent.com.
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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- The search continues for a Jacksonville man and three others in Alaska after their plane disappeared somewhere in the mountains Saturday.
Mason McLeod, 26, who's from Jacksonville, is a park ranger. The small plane he was on was reported missing after it did not arrive in the town of King Salmon as expected an hour after takeoff.
McLeod just finished a camping vacation in Washington with his parents, who are still in the Northwest awaiting word on the search, and he and the other workers were on their way to rebuild an old ranger station.
The Coast Guard is looking for the plane about 285 miles southwest of Anchorage. The Air Force, Alaska State Police and volunteer pilots are also helping in the search in the remote terrain.
McLeod's parents, Steven and Susie McLeod, said their son has worked for the U.S. National Park Service for four years. They said he works summers at Katmai National Park in Alaska and winters in the Everglades National Park.
Katmai National Park, where the plane went missing, covers five million acres and is the third largest park in the U.S. system.
McLeod's parents said Mason fell in love with Alaska after going on a cruise there.
"It was like, 'Surely this is not happening to us.' So it's been rough, really rough," family friend Lawanda Hill said of the missing plane. "To get where Mason was you had to fly in on the very same plane that he was on that went down, so he was in a remote area in Alaska, but it's what Mason loved to do. If Mason made it off the plane, he would be fine. He is a survivor."
Friends have begun a prayer circle for McLeod, a Stanton College Preparatory School and Florida State University graduate, and his family is holding out hope he'll be found safe.
"We are all trying to stay very positive," Hill said. "Prayer is a powerful thing, and that is what we are depending on."
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