Former United States Senator Ted Stevens was killed in a plane crash in southwestern Alaska on Monday night. Five of the nine people on board the small plane headed to a remote fishing lodge were killed in the crash, Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell said.
Mr. Stevens, who had been the longest-serving Republican in the United States Senate while representing Alaska, was 86.
Sean O’Keefe, 54, a former NASA administrator who now is an executive with the European aerospace firm EADS, was also on the plane with his son, but they both survived, according to an official briefed on the crash who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing.
Mr. O’Keefe, the official said, was “badly injured,” and was among three passengers airlifted to an Anchorage hospital. The body of Mr. Stevens was found just after daylight, according to a former aide to Mr. Stevens who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of respect to the family.“Though small of stature, seemed larger than life, and anybody knew him, knew that way, for he built for Alaska and he stood for Alaska and he fought for Alaskans,” Governor Parnell said at a news conference in Anchorage.
President Obama issued a statement praising Mr. Stevens on Tuesday afternoon, when word of his death was made official.
“A decorated World War II veteran, Senator Ted Stevens devoted his career to serving the people of Alaska and fighting for our men and women in uniform. Michelle and I extend our condolences to the entire Stevens family and to the families of those who perished alongside Senator Stevens in this terrible accident.”
Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, with whom Mr. Stevens had recently campaigned, was among the first to confirm his death.
“Last night, Alaska lost a hero and I lost a dear friend,” Senator Murkowski said in a statement. “The thought of losing Ted Stevens, a man who was known to business and community leaders, Native chiefs and everyday Alaskans as ‘Uncle Ted,’ is too difficult to fathom. 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.’ ”
Major Guy Hayes, chief of public affairs for the Alaska National Guard, did not identify any of the dead or the survivors, but said in a telephone interview that three of the survivors were airlifted onto a Coast Guard C-130 plane around 10 a.m. local time, and that the National Guard rescue workers were “going back to the scene to provide further medical attention to those on the ground.” He said that “Good Samaritans” who had gone to the crash site were also assisting the rescue operations.
The rescue crew was not able to reach the crash site for more than 12 hours after the accident because of rain, high winds and heavy fog in an area of mountains and lakes north of Bristol Bay.
The family of Mr. Stevens at first issued a statement on Tuesday morning that expressed concern but said nothing about the former senator’s fate:
“The Ted Stevens family offers their prayers for all those on board and for their families. We thank the brave men and women who are working to reach the site. We continue to work with the Alaska National Guard, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Alaska State Troopers. We thank everyone for their support and prayers.”
The crash occurred about 320 miles southwest of Anchorage, the National Transportation Safety Board said. Another plane spotted the downed aircraft around 7 p.m. and notified authorities, the National Guard said.
Mr. Stevens and the other passengers were flying to a lodge near Lake Aleknagik, where he often spent summers fishing. Mr. Stevens and Mr. O’Keefe had been longtime fishing buddies.
The N.T.S.B. said that the crash was about 10 miles northwest of Lake Aleknagik, and the aircraft was a DeHavilland DHC-3T. The single-engine, high-wing airplane plane is owned by GCI, the Alaskan telecommunications provider, as is the lodge.
According to a longtime bush pilot out of Dillingham who had flown over the crash site around 8 p.m. on Monday, the plane had not completely broken up on impact. The bush pilot spoke on the condition of anonymity because he flies for GCI.
In speaking with several other pilots who were in the area at the time, the bush pilot said that the pilot of the GCI plane was apparently lost in cloud cover and lost radio contact. The pilot apparently began racing to a higher elevation when the plane slammed into the Muklung Hills, at about 1,000 feet.
The bush pilot said other pilots in the area had learned that the plane likely crashed several hours earlier but that it had not filed a flight plan and authorities were not immediately aware that it was missing. Two private helicopters were the first on the scene, the bush pilot said.
The plane went undetected by radar because in the area where it went down, about 20 miles north of Dillingham, there is no radar coverage below about 4,000 feet, according to one air traffic control expert familiar with the area. The expert asked not to be identified because the N.T.S.B. is in charge of releasing information. The flight was under visual flight rules, two people familiar with the area said, meaning that it was not being directed by air traffic controllers.
The N.T.S.B. said it was sending a team of investigators to the crash site, even though it said it did not know the identity of those on board. The agency does not ordinarily send a board member from Washington to the crashes of private or corporate planes.
Mr. Stevens was appointed to the Senate in 1968 before he was elected to the first of six terms. He had served in the Senate for 40 years until he lost his bid for a seventh term in 2008 after he was found guilty of corruption charges. The case was later thrown out because of prosecutorial misconduct.
His stature in Alaska seemed to have remained virtually intact despite the scandal. Mr. Stevens survived another plane crash on Dec. 4, 1978, that killed five of seven people on board, including his first wife, Ann. He was traveling on a Lear jet that crashed when landing at Anchorage International Airport, which was renamed Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport in honor of the senator in 2000.
Before that 1978 crash, Mr. Stevens reportedly spoke of a premonition that he would die in a plane crash, a fate that is not unknown to many in Alaska who travel the vast state in small planes.
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