A small plane crashed on takeoff from a remote beach in Katmai National Park and Preserve on Sunday evening.
Federal accident investigators say the Cessna 206 with six aboard was operated by Homer-based K-Bay Air. No injuries were reported in the accident.
The plane went down in the surf, according to National Transportation Safety Board. No word yet on how the pilot and passengers got out of the plane.
Rebecca Talbot, a public affairs officer with the National Park Service in Anchorage, says the plane’s operator is a permittee of the Park Service. She says right now, there is some confusion about where the crash occurred.
“We have not had an official report of the accident from K-Bay Air; we have only heard informal reports and it has not yet been determined if it was at Cape Douglas or Kamishak Bay,” she said.
Talbot says weather in the park is deteriorating, and no Park Service personnel are near the crash site.
The head of the NTSB’s Anchorage office, Clint Johnson, says investigators have not yet interviewed the pilot and don’t know details such as the extent of damage to the plane. The cause of the crash also is unknown.
APTI Reporter-Producer Ellen Lockyer started her radio career in the late 1980s, after a stint at bush Alaska weekly newspapers, the Copper Valley Views and the Cordova Times. When the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound, Valdez Public Radio station KCHU needed a reporter, and Ellen picked up the microphone.
Since then, she has literally traveled the length of the state, from Attu to Eagle and from Barrow to Juneau, covering Alaska stories on the ground for the AK show, Alaska News Nightly, the Alaska Morning News and for Anchorage public radio station, KSKA
elockyer (at) alaskapublic (dot) org | 907.550.8446 | About Ellen
