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A plane believed to be carrying eight people crashed in southwest Alaska on Monday night, authorities said on Tuesday.
It was feared that former Sen. Ted Stevens was on board the flight, but officials have not been able to confirm that, local station KTUU TV reported. The Associated Press also cited an unnamed U.S. official as saying Stevens may have been on board.
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Plane Possibly Carrying Former U.S. Senator Ted Stevens Crashes in Alaska
A plane carrying eight to nine people crashed near the city of Dillingham in Alaska on late Monday, officials said on Tuesday. Reports said former U.S. Senator Ted Stevens could be on board.
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At least five people were killed in the Alaska crash of a small plane that was carrying nine people, including former NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe and, according to an unnamed U.S. official, former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens.
Ted Lopatkiewicz, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board, told The Associated Press in Washington that reports from Alaska authorities were that nine people were aboard the aircraft and that "it appears that there are five fatalities."
O'Keefe, the CEO of aerospace firm EADS North America and former U.S. navy secretary, was flying on the plane with one son, according to an EADS spokesman.
A U.S. official told The Associated Press that Alaska authorities have been told the former longtime Republican senator was among several passengers on the plane.
Stevens, 86, was on a fishing trip in Alaska with former members of his staff and their family, a congressional source told Reuters, adding that the plane either crashed by a lake or into the water. Stevens's wife, Catherine, was not on the plane.
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In 1978, Stevens was severely injured in a plane crash that killed his first wife Ann and four other passengers. Reports from that time indicated Stevens was seriously injured with head, neck and arm injuries.
The longest-serving Republican in Senate history, Stevens lost his re-election bid in 2008 after he was convicted on corruption charges, but the case was later thrown out because of prosecutorial misconduct.
Through his long career, he chaired the Commerce and Appropriations committees, and became known for the proposed "Bridge to Nowhere," which became a symbol of out-of-control "pork barrel" spending.
The now-abandoned project would have linked the town of Ketchikan to its island airport at a cost of $398 million.
The former World War II pilot has said he is well aware of the dangers of flying. "Every time you go up, there's a chance you won't come down," he told the AP in 2002.
Survivors from the crash
Alaska National Guard spokesman Maj. Guy Hayes said the Guard was called to the area about 20 miles north of Dillingham at about 7 p.m. Monday after a passing aircraft saw the wreckage.
"From what I'm told, there are survivors on this aircraft," Hayes said according to the Anchorage Daily News. He added that he did not know how many fatalities there were.
About five good Samaritans were on scene early Tuesday helping the crash victims, Hayes said. He said he was told by Alaska State Troopers that there were "eight or nine" people on board, though a spokeswoman for the troopers, Megan Peters, refused to comment.
She said the only thing she could confirm was that a plane went down and crews were "aggressively" trying to reach the crash site but were having difficulty doing so.
I can't go beyond, 'We're responding to a plane crash,'" she said.
The aircraft is a 1957 DeHavilland DHC-3 Otter registered to Anchorage-based communications company GCI, the Federal Aviation Administration told the Anchorage Daily News.
A woman at the Regional Operations Center told The Associated Press all further information was pending notification of next of kin.
Dillingham is located in northern Bristol Bay, about 325 miles southwest of Anchorage