Four people on a Yute Commuter Service plane from Bethel to St. Mary’s went down on Sunday night, killing all aboard, just short of the St. Mary’s runway.
The Alaska Rescue Coordination Center contacted the Alaska State Troopers about the overdue aircraft. St. Mary’s-based Alaska State Troopers responded to the last known location of the aircraft and located the crashed Cessna T207 and four deceased adult males at the wreckage site approximately ½ mile from the runway.
Wildlife Troopers and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Officers responded to assist with transporting the men’s bodies to the roadway so that they could be transported to the State Medical Examiner’s Office for autopsy. The identities of the deceased men will be released once they have been positively identified and next of kin have been notified, the Troopers said in a statement.
It was the third fatal air crash in three days in the state. On Friday, two died when their plane crashed into Tustemena Lake on the Kenai Peninsula, and on Saturday a man piloting an experimental aircraft crashed in Wasilla. The National Transportation Safety Board will be investigating all three crashes.
