Four Dead as Plane Crashes Off Alaska Town
Four Dead as Plane Crashes Off Alaska Town
The News
Four people were killed Wednesday when a small plane crashed into shallow water next to Seldovia, a remote coastal town in Alaska, officials said.
The aircraft, a Piper PA-24, had taken off from Anchorage and was heading for the airport in Seldovia, about 136 miles southwest of the city, according to a statement from the Alaska Department of Public Safety.
The plane ended up submerged in roughly 15 feet of water in the Seldovia Slough near the shore, said Clint Johnson, the National Transportation Safety Board's Alaska region chief.
Timeline
The Piper PA-24 departs Anchorage bound for Seldovia's airport and crashes into the water beside the town, killing all four adults on board.
Troopers are forced to wait for the tide to go out before they can reach the submerged wreckage, which is sitting in about 15 feet of water in the Seldovia Slough.
Troopers recover the bodies of the four adults from the plane. The Department of Public Safety says the victims are being sent to the medical examiner's office and that names will not be released until next of kin are notified.
A separate plane crashes at a remote military site in western Alaska, killing all eight people on board. Authorities said that aircraft was making its second runway approach in heavy fog and its pilots could not see the gravel airstrip.
Reactions
U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska said he will be briefed by the NTSB and the Federal Aviation Administration as they work to determine what went wrong.
"These tragedies are heartbreaking and unacceptable, which is why aviation safety and infrastructure in Alaska continue to be a top focus of mine," Sullivan wrote in a post on Facebook.
The Alaska Department of Public Safety, which confirmed the flight's origin and destination, has held back the victims' identities pending family notification.
What's Next
The NTSB is investigating the crash. It was not immediately clear what may have caused it.
The medical examiner's office will handle the four bodies recovered from the wreckage, and state officials say names will be released once next of kin have been notified.
Sullivan's promised briefing from the NTSB and FAA is the next official step likely to produce new information.
More
Seldovia sits across Kachemak Bay from the road system, and small aircraft are a routine link to Anchorage for towns like it. The tidal conditions that forced troopers to wait out the water before reaching the plane are a reminder of how much harder rescue and recovery work is in that terrain.
The crash is the second fatal Alaska aviation disaster in under a week, bringing the combined death toll from the two wrecks to 12.
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