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Flightseeing plane makes emergency landing on Denali National Park glacier

A giant snowy mountain
Denali in Feb. 2021 (Lex Treinen/Alaska Public Media)

A sightseeing plane with nine people on board lost power and was forced to land near a glacier in Denali National Park Friday.

According to a National Park Service release, the pilot of a K2 Aviation plane carrying eight passengers made an emergency landing in thick alders near the toe of the Tokositna Glacier just before 5 p.m. Friday.   

Park officials say no one was hurt, and an NPS A-Star helicopter shuttled the pilot and passengers to a nearby gravel bar.

From there the Park Service helicopter, along with an HH-60 helicopter from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson and an R-44 helicopter from Talkeetna Air Taxi, teamed up to fly everyone to Talkeetna.  

Park Service officials are working with a National Transportation Safety Board investigator to remove the airplane from the site.

Dan Bross is a reporter at KUAC in Fairbanks.