A plane carrying five adults crashed about eight miles southwest of Iliamna around 1 p.m. on Saturday, according to a dispatch from Alaska State Troopers. All five survived the initial impact and are receiving medical care at Anchorage-area hospitals.
One person is in serious condition, one is in fair condition and three are in stable condition, troopers said in an update Sunday afternoon.
Around 1 p.m. on Saturday, troopers received notice of a signal from an emergency locator transmitter — a device that sends out an audio alert and GPS signal when activated. The signal was coming from the offshore ice on the lake.
Alaska Wildlife Troopers launched an R44 helicopter from the King Salmon area, and local crews and private aircraft from Iliamna tried to reach the site. Responders included Lake and Peninsula Airlines, Iliamna Air Taxi, search-and-rescue volunteers and others from the Iliamna area.
Trooper spokesperson Austin McDaniel said the helicopter arrived at the scene around 3:45 p.m.
Rescue teams and troopers found a Cessna 206, which had been destroyed in the crash. According to the Federal Aviation Administration registry, the plane — which has a tail number of N1853Q — is owned by Send North, the Anchorage-based branch of evangelical missions organization Send International. Send North “supports and administers remote ministry activity” in Alaska and parts of Canada.
Bad weather conditions initially stopped rescue teams from the Alaska Air National Guard at Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson and the U.S. Coast Guard in Kodiak from reaching the area.
At about 6 p.m. — at least five hours after the plane went down — those teams arrived at the crash site and lifted all five people from the scene. They were flown to Iliamna and then medevaced to hospitals in the Anchorage area.
The National Transportation Safety Board was notified of the incident and will investigate the cause of the crash.
[Sign up for Alaska Public Media’s daily newsletter to get our top stories delivered to your inbox.]
