Posted on 08/10/2010 4:00:01 AM PDT by tlb
JUNEAU, Alaska - Authorities said Tuesday that a plane believed to be carrying eight people has crashed in southwest Alaska.
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.
Hayes says there are possible fatalities. State and federal officials say severe weather has hampered the rescue operation.
Hayes says about five good Samaritans were on scene early Tuesday helping the crash victims. He says 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.
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.
According to the Anchorage Daily News, former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens was reportedly traveling to a GCI-owned lodge in the area and friends are concerned he may have been on the downed plane.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsminer.com ...
A plane crashed into Denali National Parkland last week.
No identification of the country of origin as it seemed some type of military plane. There was never any follow up.
sigh.....we remain uninformed for the most part.
Still pretty early on the left coast. I suspect this thread will be popping in about an hour or so.
The Telegraph is my favorite, followed by Daily Mail.
Prayers for the passengers and their families.
Alaskans travel by small plane many times more often than the rest of us in the country do.
Other sources, but nothing much new
http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=12952729
http://www.ktva.com/topalaskanews/ci_15724620
>>> A plane crashed into Denali National Parkland last week. No identification of the country of origin as it seemed some type of military plane.
No the plane was identified. I even found and posted a picture of the specific airplane. It had unique nose-art.
“The plane that went down sunday was a C-123 J model called “Large Marge” a retired military plane from the vietnam war era, the plane was being used to haul a generator from the Mat Su Valley area to the nome area, they flew through the cantwell area to avoid increased traffic due to the air show, There where three men aboard”
Pictures of C-123 J “Large Marge”
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ra64/4778770983/in/photostream/
From Wikipedia....On December 4, 1978, the crash of a Learjet 25C at Anchorage International Airport killed five people. Ted Stevens survived; his wife, Ann, did not.[19] The building which houses the Alaska chapter of the American Red Cross at 235 East 8th Avenue in Anchorage is named the Ann Stevens Building in her honor.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/08/10/plane-crash-reported-near-dillingham-alaska-believed-aboard/
Fox website using AP report.
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.
Hayes says there are possible fatalities. State and federal officials say severe weather has hampered the rescue operation.
Hayes says about five good Samaritans were on scene early Tuesday helping the crash victims. He says 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.
Similar to Providers used in Vietnam. Op Ranch Hand...
Thanks so much for the info. I missed the details after the initial report.
FR rules!!!
The DH-3 Otter is a great aircraft. Unfortunately, if the weather is bad enough, no aircraft, no matter how tough, will survive.
I think I read somewhere once that the FAA excludes data from Alaska (or reports them separately) in their statistics regarding small plane crashes, because of the number of fatalities in Alaska is so much higher compared to the rest of the country.
Its 3:42am here near Wasilla, Alaska, I just woke up.
GCI is my dial-up and its dropped connection three times in 5 minutes.
What was really weird is that my wife who was up at 2am and tuned to FOX news swears everything was in Arabic and other foreign languages.
As far as this incident goes its nothing but rumors, but the comments at the adn website are being deleted awfully fast, so in itself it is painting a grim picture.
Info on the de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter:
http://www.bush-planes.com/DeHavilland-DHC-3-Otter.html
They are serious workhorse airplanes, reliable to a fault. Some have had their old radial piston engines replaced with modern, more efficient turboprops.
}:-)4
That one was in the news. Private C-123, no mystery.
http://www.adn.com/2010/08/01/1391108/plane-crashes-in-alaska-national.html
Dish Network, if thats who you have, has been having “issues” this morning.
I wish Sen. Stevens well. Not only did his wife die in a plane crash but the Dem that defeated him, Begich (after a cooked up federal trial) lost his father in a plane crash with Hale Boggs.
http://www.adn.com/2010/08/09/1402798/plane-with-8-on-board-crashes.html#ixzz0wBpsaFGd
Gives this tail number:
http://www.airliners.net/photo/Wood-River-Lodge/De-Havilland-Canada/0835289/L/
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