Two people were killed and four others injured in a small plane crash near Alaska's Lower Yukon Valley that had rescuers searching for more than 14 hours, authorities said on Sunday. The four survivors were rescued from the wreckage of the Cessna 207 aircraft on Sunday morning on a mountainous area about 150 miles west of Anchorage, said Beth Ipsen, a spokesman for the Alaska State Troopers.
"The survivors were transported to a hospital in Anchorage where they are receiving treatment for their injuries. I don't have information in their injuries or conditions. Hopefully they'll be okay," Ipsen told Reuters.
Authorities did not release the identities of the victims pending notification of their families, and Ipsen said she did not know if the pilot was among the survivors.
The passengers included all three teachers assigned to the school in the Athabascan village of Anvik, including one married couple and their two children, ages 8 and 10, Karen Ladegard, superintendent for the Iditarod School District that includes Anvik, told the Anchorage Daily News.
Troopers got an emergency call from Inland Aviation, the private company that owns the plane, on Saturday night, she said.
But rescuers could not reach the crash site until Sunday morning due to bad weather, Ipsen said.
Ipsen said the plane was traveling from Anvik, Alaska, to the town of McGrath when it issued an SOS distress call at 8:22 p.m. to the aviation company.
The site was pinpointed by GPS around 37 miles west of McGrath, Ipsen said. The only communication after that was a weak distress transmission on Sunday morning, she said.
Attempts were made to reach
the site overnight by the Alaska National Guard, Inland and commercial planes, she said.
The National Weather Service said the temperatures in McGrath overnight hovered around the upper 50s.
An Alaska National Guard helicopter finally reached the site on Sunday, Ipsen said.
She did not have any information on the survivors' conditions or what went wrong with the plane. The National Transportation Safety Board will be investigating, she said.
