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Alaska: three dead after two sightseeing planes collide midair Alaska: at least four dead after two sightseeing planes collide midair
(about 11 hours later)
Three people were killed after two sightseeing airplanes carrying cruise ship tourists collided in midair Monday near a southeast Alaska town, the Coast Guard said, with three others still missing. Federal accident investigators are due to arrive in Alaska on Tuesday after at least four people were killed when two sightseeing airplanes carrying cruise ship tourists collided in midair during daylight, neara popular tourist town.
The floatplanes collided near the town of Ketchikan under unknown circumstances, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Allen Kenitzer told the Associated Press. The National Transportation Safety Board investigators are traveling to Ketchikan, near where Monday afternoon’s crash happened, an NTSB official said.
Floatplanes have pontoons mounted under the fuselage so they can land on water. The two float-planes went down over water about 25 to 30 miles north-east of Ketchikan, according to Petty Officer Jon-Paul Rios of the US Coast Guard, and 10 other people were injured in the collision.
Eleven people were inside Taquan Air’s single-engine aircraft when it went down. Ten were taken to a Ketchikan hospital. All patients were in fair or good condition, according to a spokeswoman for the hospital. The passengers, who were traveling on the cruise ship Royal Princess, were on sightseeing flights, one which was operated by Taquan Air. A spokeswoman for the sightseeing company said Taquan has suspended operations while federal authorities investigate the deadly crash. All 14 passengers on both planes were from the cruise ship Royal Princess, on a seven-day trip from Vancouver to Anchorage and operated by Princess Cruises.
“We are devastated by today’s incident and our hearts go out to our passengers and their families,” Taquan said in a statement. “At this time, we are in the midst of an active crisis response, and our focus is on assisting these passengers, the pilot, our staff, their families and loved ones, and first responders.” The TV network NBC reported early on Tuesday that a fifth person had died and one remained missing, with one person was critical and three in a serious condition in hospital, citing medical staff.
The three people who died were among five people aboard the second plane,, according to Coast Guard Lt Brian Dykens. The crash site, at Coon Cove about 300 miles south of the state capital, Juneau, lies near a tourist lodge that runs excursions to the nearby Misty Fjords national monument.
Cindy Cicchetti, a passenger on the Royal Princess cruise ship, told the AP that the ship captain announced that two planes were in an accident Monday. She said the ship is not leaving as scheduled and there weren’t any details as to how the accident will affect the rest of the trip. One of the aircraft was a De Havilland DHC-2 Beaver with five people aboard, and the other a De Havilland Otter DHC-3 carrying 11, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman, Allen Kenitzer, said.
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating. Weather conditions in the area on Monday included high overcast skies with 9 mph (14 kph) southeast winds. The Ketchikan-based operator of the larger plane, Taquan Air, said its pilot and nine passengers were rescued and were receiving medical attention, but one passenger’s fate was unknown. That group was returning from a flight-seeing tour of Misty Fjords when the crash occurred, Taquan said.
Neither of the single-engine planes was under air traffic control when they collided, Kenitzer said.
“We are devastated by today’s incident and our hearts go out to our passengers and their families,” Taquan said on Monday in a statement.
Cindy Cicchetti, a passenger on the Royal Princess cruise ship, told the AP that the ship captain announced that two planes were in an accident on Monday. She said the ship is not leaving as scheduled and there weren’t any no details as to how the accident will affect the rest of the trip.
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