Friday Update:
Authorities say all nine people aboard a sightseeing airplane died when it crashed Thursday in southeast Alaska.
Clint Johnson, head of the National Transportation Safety Board’s Alaska office, confirmed weather is preventing the recovery of bodies Thursday evening off a cliff about 20 miles northeast of Ketchikan.
Attempts to recover the bodies will resume Friday.
The plane was carrying eight cruise ship passengers and a pilot. It went missing Thursday afternoon and was crashed against the granite rock face of a southeast Alaska cliff.
Thursday Original Story:
A Ketchikan sightseeing plane has been found against a granite rock face after being reported overdue earlier today.
The National Transportation Safety Board confirmed the eight out of state tourists and the pilot died.
A Federal Aviation Administration spokesman says the DeHavill and DHC-3 Otter crashed Thursday afternoon under unknown circumstances.
The Ketchikan-based sightseeing company was reported overdue to the Coast Guard around 2:15 pm Thursday.
The Alaska State Troopers said the an emergency locator transmitter activated near Misty Fjords National Monument, and a helicopter pilot spotted the downed aircraft above Ella Lake, about 800 miles southeast of Anchorage.
