Small plane crash in Alaska kills four

A small plane bound for a remote coastal town in Alaska crashed into shallow water Wednesday, killing all four people on board, officials said.

The Piper PA-24 had taken off from Anchorage and was headed to the airport in Seldovia, according to the Alaska Department of Public Safety. The town’s airport is about 136 miles southwest of Anchorage.

The plane went down in the Seldovia Slough, near the shore, and was submerged in about 15 feet of water after the crash, said Clint Johnson, the National Transportation Safety Board’s Alaska region chief. Alaska State Troopers sent a helicopter crew from Anchorage and also deployed troopers by boat to reach the scene.

The tide complicated recovery efforts. Troopers had to wait for the water to recede before they could access the aircraft, officials said.

Troopers later recovered the bodies of the four adults from the plane. The victims were being sent to the medical examiner’s office, and their names will not be released until their next of kin are notified, the Department of Public Safety said.

Officials did not immediately say what may have caused the crash. The NTSB is investigating.

Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska said he would receive a briefing from the NTSB and the Federal Aviation Administration as investigators work to determine what went wrong.

“These tragedies are heartbreaking and unacceptable, which is why aviation safety and infrastructure in Alaska continue to be a top focus of mine,” Sullivan said in a Facebook post.

The crash came less than a week after another aircraft went down at a remote military site in western Alaska, killing all eight people on board. In that case, authorities said the aircraft had been making its second runway approach in heavy fog, and the pilots could not see the gravel airstrip.