Former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens has died in a plane crash. The aviation accident took place on Monday evening close to a small fishing town on Bristol Bay. Four other plane passengers were also killed. The cause of the private plane accident is not yet known. Former NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe and his son Kevin were among the four that survivors. The private plane was reportedly headed to a luxury fishing lodge belonging to General Communications, Inc., a local telecom company.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, the plane, a 1957 DeHavilland DHC-3T, which is owned by GCI, took off at 2pm on Monday and was not required to file a flight plan. Weather condition grew poor however, and the small plane crashed at around 7pm. Rain and fog also hampered search efforts, and rescuers were not able to land close to the wreckage, which was on a 40-degree mountain slope, until this morning.
With 41 years in the US Senate, Stevens was the longest-serving Republican. He lost his seat in 2008 after he was convicted of corruption charges. However, the conviction was later set aside because of prosecutorial misconduct. This was not the first plane crash that the 86-year-old former politician had been involved in. Steven survived an aviation accident in 1978 that claimed the life of his former wife Anne. Stevens leaves behind his wife Catherine and six children.
Anaheim Plane Crashes
Our Anaheim aviation accident lawyers know how devastating it is to lose someone you love in an Orange County, California plane crash. The National Transportation Safety Board says that plane passengers have a 50 times greater chance of dying in a private aircraft than on a commercial flight--this risk is especially high in California, which was where 182 of the 1,670 plane accidents that happened in 2005 took place.
Patron of Alaska dies in air crash, Los Angeles Times, August 10, 2010
Alaska's terrain, weather complicates flying, searching, CNN, August 10, 2010
Related Web Resources:
Ted Stevens Biography, AP, August 10, 2010
Plane Accidents Overview, Justia
