Two people were killed and another was seriously injured Monday afternoon when a small commercial flight crashed near the village of Nanwalek, on the southern Kenai Peninsula.
Alaska State Troopers said the single-engine Cessna 207 had taken off from Homer and went down around 2 p.m. near the Nanwalek airstrip. Troopers and emergency crews from the community responded to the crash, along with an investigator from the National Transportation Safety Board.
At the time of the initial response, Troopers spokesman Austin McDaniel said, “The State Troopers are responding right now to a plane crash near Nanwalek. We aren’t on scene yet, but we have folks actively on their way there right now.”
Troopers said all three people on board were adults. Two were pronounced dead at the scene. The third was medevaced to an Anchorage hospital with serious injuries.
The NTSB said the plane was operated by Smokey Bay Air and was flying a regularly scheduled Part 135 commercial route. The crash remains under investigation, with an NTSB investigator arriving in Nanwalek Monday afternoon to document the scene and begin gathering witness accounts.
Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Superintendent Clayton Holland confirmed that while no school staff were on the plane, the local principal and school employees were involved in the immediate response.
“Our principal and staff were involved with the immediate response to the wreck and we are thankful to them and all the other community members who responded to provide aide,” Holland said in a statement, calling the crash a tragedy for both Nanwalek and Homer.
Nanwalek, a small community of about 240 residents, sits near the mouth of Cook Inlet and is accessible only by plane or boat.
Names of the victims have not yet been released, pending notification of next of kin.