Plane with 8 on board crashes off Dillingham (Alaska) 1957 DeHavilland DHC-3 Otter

[Pepper]

The Kathryn Report:

Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Plane with 8 on board crashes off Dillingham (Alaska) 1957 DeHavilland DHC-3 Otter
5 good Samaritans reportedly on scene as weather hampers rescue



Severe weather has hampered the rescue operation for eight people believed to be on board a GCI-owned aircraft that crashed near Dillingham on Monday night with possible fatalities, according to state and federal officials.

The Alaska Air National Guard was called to the area about 20 miles north of Dillingham at about 7 p.m. after a passing aircraft saw the wreckage, spokesman Maj. Guy Hayes said. Eight people were reported to be on board the aircraft, though their status wasn't immediately known, he said. There were possible fatalities, he said.

National Transportation Safety Board reported that it will send a "Go Team" from Washington, D.C., to Dillingham to investigate the crash. The teams can consist of up to a dozen or more specialists from the board's headquarters staff and are responsible for investigating major cases -- they are the arm that responds to "catastrophic airline crash sites" -- for the board, according to the NTSB.


Friends of former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens said he was traveling Monday to the GCI-owned Agulowak Lodge near Lake Aleknagik, and they were concerned for him.

A woman who answered the phone at the Anchorage home of retired Air Force Gen. Joe Ralston, a good friend of Stevens, said Ralston was with Stevens' wife, Catherine, comforting her and trying to find out what was going on.

No one answered the phone at the homes of Stevens' daughter, Susan Covich, in Kenai, or his son, Ben, in Anchorage.

[pollyannaish]

Yikes. We know a lot of people in that area...especially this time of year. Prayers for all those involved.

 

Chickadee

[clearvision]

Stevens was on the flight and killed.

[pollyannaish]

Stevens was on the flight and killed.

 

Very sad.

[Rheo]

Stevens was on the flight and killed.

 

Very sad.

Very. Bizarre too as it was his second plane crash. The first one killed 5 people on board, including his first wife.

[pollyannaish]

Stevens was on the flight and killed.

 

Very sad.

Very. Bizarre too as it was his second plane crash. The first one killed 5 people on board, including his first wife.

 

Wow. That's Alaska for you. My Uncle and Aunt were killed in a small plane wreck on their way back through Canada from here. He was a bush pilot minister up there for the last six or seven years of his life.

 

Edited to add: The CEO of the company I worked for before this last one was in a plane crash here a few weeks ago. Amazingly, he is recovering well, but the first hours were scary.

[Rheo]

Wow, that must have been awful for your family Pollyannaish! I find it amazing when someone can survive a plane crash. Hope the CEO continues to recover.

[nickydog]

Someone said on Fox this morning that these kinds of plane crashes are more common in Alaska because so much more transport is done by air there.

[Chickadee]

Oh the stories I could tell you about major events in the lives of MrChick, Tzchaen (MrPolly) and our other son, as well as myself, involving this area of world. MrChick first went commercial fishing out of Dillingham when our youngest son was 3 days old. In those days MrChick fished out of a 28 foot open skiff. I spent 2 weeks there and also fished out of that open skiff, two years later. Our most recent fishing boat was stored at Lake Aleknagik and we are very familiar with the Agulowak Lodge.

 

On my last trip to Dillingham, MrChick and I took our boat up to Lake Aleknagik for storage, but before winterizing it we took two days for a little R&R time and went cruising/camping on the lake. It is an amazingly beautiful area.

 

Dillingham itself is considered to be a sizable town--by Alaska standards. But one problem is basically the only way to get there is to fly in (unless you have a LARGE ship to travel there). Hence the many planes in the area and the number of crashes. I believe the large size of the air strip at the Dillingham Airport is from using it to land military planes at some time in the past. (Dillingham Airport covers an area of 620 acres (251 ha) at an elevation of 81 feet above mean sea level. It has one runway designated 1/19 with a 6,400 x 150 ft asphalt pavement. For the 12-month period ending June 8, 2007, the airport had 50,892 aircraft operations, an average of 139 per day: 72% air taxi, 26% general aviation, 2% scheduled commercial and <1% military. At that time there were 52 aircraft based at this airport, all single-engine. It is serviced by Alaska Airlines and Penn Air.)

 

If you look at Mapquest or Google Maps, etc. you will see that out of Dillingham you can take a boat up the Wood River to Lake Aleknagik. Maps don't show you the enormity of Bristol Bay, the Wood River nor Lake Aleknagik. There is also a road (which our best friend was responsible for building), which runs inland from Dillingham to the lake. I would far prefer to take that road to the lake than to fly or take a boat up the Wood River. (When I was there one year during fishing season, we fished in the Wood River part of the time and it is very competitive and nerve wracking work due to the number of fishing boats jockeying for position while trying to keep fishing nets from becoming entangled.)

 

On my first trip to Dillingham, we took that road from Dillingham up to what WE called "First Lake" (because there are a series of three lakes), but the road at that time was not paved nor really even graded very well. Dillingham's first paved road arrived years after MrChick first started fishing there. Everything was just graded dirt roads and quite primitive--like our friend's parents had an airstrip as their front yard. His dad was THE doctor in town and had an office and small operating room in his basement. This friend's uncle and aunt were pioneers in the area--the uncle running a trap line while the aunt stayed BY HERSELF in a platform tent out in the middle of the forest for weeks at a time. She was only 5 feet tall, but what a woman! This was in the 30's.

 

Like I said, stories abound . . . but today we were saddened that the beauty of the area was marred by the loss of lives! What a tragedy for these families.

 

(I will try to find some pictures to put in the gallery--but most are still probably till 35mm slides.)

[Chickadee]

Well, now, wasn't that just an epistle and a half! Ack!

[Geee]

Was great that you took the time to tell us all of that Chickadee!

[Chickadee]

Was great that you took the time to tell us all of that Chickadee!

Geee! Have I mentioned why my name is "Chickadee"? It's because these birds are somewhat like me: small (I'm 5'3"), fast (I often dervish!), and very, very verbal (e.g. noisy). That's me. I talk a lot and fast. Plus I type that way too and before you know it I have another epistle. [sORRY!]

[Argyle58]

Was great that you took the time to tell us all of that Chickadee!

Geee! Have I mentioned why my name is "Chickadee"? It's because these birds are somewhat like me: small (I'm 5'3"), fast (I often dervish!), and very, very verbal (e.g. noisy). That's me. I talk a lot and fast. Plus I type that way too and before you know it I have another epistle. [sORRY!]

 

Apologies are not necessary, Chickadee. I think we all enjoyed the stories. I have been to Anchorage, but have never been to the interior of the state. It is nice to hear from someone who actually experienced it. Helps the rest of us appreciate it.

[nickydog]

Absolutely do not apologize, Chickadee! That was fascinating -- a life and a part of our country few of the rest of us know anything about.

[Chickadee]

Thanks guys!

[Draggingtree]

Not Guilty

 

Peter Robinson January 10, 2015

 

In 2008, during his sixth term as a Republican senator from Alaska, Ted Stevens was indicted for failing to report a number of gifts, mostly in the form of renovations to a small house he owned. Stevens was convicted in October. Two weeks later, he lost his senate seat to Democrat Mark Begich by fewer than 4,000 votes out of more than 300,000. Nothing in history is quite certain—except this: If Stevens hadn’t been convicted, he would have won. And, had Stevens won, then, in the critical Senate vote of December 23, 2010, he would have denied Harry Reid and Senate Democrats the sixtieth vote they needed to move cloture—and enact Obamacare.

 

To repeat: Obamacare passed the Senate by a single vote. If Ted Stevens hadn’t been convicted, then Obamacare—certainly in its present form—would have failed.

 

Conviction of Ted Stevens tells us nothing at all about Sen. Stevens and a great deal about our own government. The prosecution broke the rules—brazenly and willfully—withholding exculpatory evidence.

https://ricochet.com/guilty-2/

[clearvision]

Was looking at a 5 year old thread and wondering why you posted to it. Interesting the connections over time.

[Geee]

How many Republicans have been destroyed about something that either turned out to be nothing or something that the Democrats do routinely and are not called out on it? How many Democrats never get punished for offenses that are actual offenses and some serious offenses? Pardon me for asking a redundant question.