Four killed after small plane crashes into waters near remote Alaska town

A small plane carrying four people crashed into shallow coastal waters near the remote Alaskan town of Seldovia on Wednesday, August 26, killing everyone on board, authorities said.

The Piper PA-24 was en route to Seldovia Airport after departing from Anchorage, according to the Alaska Department of Public Safety, cited by US media.

The airport is about 136 miles (219 kilometres) southwest of Anchorage.

The aircraft crashed into Seldovia Slough near the shoreline and came to rest submerged in about 15 feet (4.6 meters) of water, said Clint Johnson, chief of the National Transportation Safety Board’s Alaska region. Troopers had to wait for the tide to recede before they could reach the aircraft.

Authorities recovered the bodies of all four adults from the plane. They were being transported to the medical examiner’s office, and their names will not be released until their next of kin have been notified, the Department of Public Safety said.

The cause of the crash was not immediately known. The NTSB is investigating.

Alaska U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan said he would receive briefings from the NTSB and the Federal Aviation Administration as investigators work to determine what happened.

“These tragedies are heartbreaking and unacceptable, which is why aviation safety and infrastructure in Alaska continue to be a top focus of mine,” Sullivan said in a post on Facebook.

The crash came less than a week after another plane went down at a remote military site in western Alaska, killing all eight people aboard. Authorities said that aircraft was making its second approach to a runway in heavy fog when its pilots were unable to see the gravel airstrip.

By Tamilla Hasanova