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Identified: All Aboard Dillingham CrashKTVA CBS 11 News' sources have revealed the names of all 9 passengers on board the DeHavilland DHC-3T that crashed Monday evening; next of kin have been notified.Related Content
Original article posted Aug. 10, 2010 KTVA CBS 11 News' sources have revealed the names of all 9 passengers on board the DeHavilland DHC-3T that crashed Monday evening; next of kin have been notified. Ex-U.S. Senator Ted Stevens, Dana Tindall, Corey Tindall, William Phillips and Terry Smith did not survive the crash.
Former NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe, his son Kevin O'Keefe, Jim Morhard and Willy Phillips survived and according to KTVA sources are being treated at an Anchorage hospital.
The plane crashed near Dillingham, Alaska.
Stevens and O'Keefe are longtime fishing buddies who had been planning a trip near where the float plane crashed while carrying nine passengers.
Former NASA spokesman Glenn Mahone said he spoke with O'Keefe's family and they told him that O'Keefe and his son had some broken bones and other injuries.
The crash was a stunning event in a state where Stevens became the most beloved political figure in Alaska history during his 40 years in the Senate, earning a reputation as a tireless advocate for projects that brought millions of federal dollars to the state. He was 86.
Rescuers arrived on helicopter early Tuesday and were giving medical care to at least three survivors, Alaska National Guard spokesman Maj. Guy Hayes said. He offered no additional details about their conditions or identities.
National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Ted Lopatkiewicz told The Associated Press in Washington that "it appears that there are five fatalities." He said the NTSB is sending a team to the crash site outside Dillingham, located in Bristol Bay about 325 miles southwest of Anchorage. The aircraft is a DeHavilland DHC-3T registered to Anchorage-based GCI.
The cause of the crash was not immediately known, but the flights at Dillingham are often perilous through the mountains, even in good weather.
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Mike Fergus said the plane took off at 2 p.m. Monday from a GCI corporate site on Lake Nerka, heading to the Agulowak Lodge on Lake Aleknagik.
The lodge is made of logs and sits on a lake, and photos show a stately main lodge room with a large imposing stone fireplace, a leather sofa and a mounted caribou head on the wall.
Fergus said the plane was flying by visual flight rules, and was not required to file a flight plan.
Hayes said the Guard was called to the area about 20 miles north of Dillingham around 7 p.m. Monday after a passing aircraft saw the downed plane. But severe weather has hampered search and rescue efforts.
The National Weather Service reported rain and fog, with low clouds and limited visibility early Tuesday. Conditions ranged from visibility of about 10 miles reported at Dillingham shortly before 7 p.m. Monday to 3 miles, with rain and fog later.
At least three crash victims were being airlifted to Anchorage, Guard spokeswoman Kalei Brooks Rupp said. She said volunteers hiked into the crash site Monday night and provided medical aid until rescuers arrived.
Stevens was appointed to the Senate in 1968 and served longer than any other Republican in history. He was revered as a relentless advocate for Alaska's economic interests.
Stevens was one of two survivors in a 1978 plane crash at Anchorage International Airport that killed his wife, Ann, and several others. He remarried several years after the crash - he and his second wife, Catherine, have a daughter, Lily.
The airport in Anchorage is now named after Stevens.
"Last night, Alaska lost a hero and I lost a dear friend," Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski said in a statement. "His entire life was dedicated to public service from his days as a pilot in World War II to his four decades of service in the United States Senate. He truly was the greatest of the Greatest Generation."
Over the years, Stevens directed billions of dollars to Alaska.
But one of his projects - infamously known as the "Bridge to Nowhere" - became a symbol of pork-barrel spending in Congress and a target of taxpayer groups who challenged a $450 million appropriation for bridge construction in Ketchikan.
Stevens' standing in Alaska was toppled by corruption allegations and a federal trial in 2008. He was convicted of all seven counts - and narrowly lost his Senate seat to Democrat Mark Begich in the election the following week.
But five months after the election, Attorney General Eric Holder sought to dismiss the indictment against Stevens and not proceed with a new trial because of prosecutorial misconduct by federal prosecutors.
Plane crashes in Alaska are somewhat common because of the treacherous weather and mountainous terrain. Many parts of the state are not accessible by roads, forcing people to travel by air to reach their destinations.
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