9 killed in small plane crash in southeast Alaska
Friday, 26 June 2015
An excursion plane carrying passengers from a Holland America Line cruise ship has crashed in south-east Alaska, with all nine on board killed including the pilot. The crash occurred near Ella Lake, about 20 miles (30 km) north-east of the town of Ketchikan, the Seattle-based cruise company said in a statement. Search and rescue crews were sent. The small float plane operated by Promech Air and carried eight passengers from the cruise ship Westerdam, Holland America said. All nine people on board an Alaskan sightseeing plane died in a crash, authorities said, but stormy weather was preventing the immediate recovery of the bodies from the rocky cliffside crash site. “We have nine fatalities,” said Clint Johnson, head of the National Transportation Safety Board’s Alaska office. Rain and wind forced an end to recovery efforts on Thursday night in the rugged terrain about 20 miles north-east of Ketchikan, south-east Alaska. Officials would mount a recovery attempt again on Friday, he said, according to a news agency.