Dillingham, AKFour survivors have been rescued from the small plane crash near Dillingham, AK on Monday, August 9th. Sadly, five others, including former Sen. Ted Stevens, were found dead. The National Transportation Safety Board officials hiked to the scene Wednesday and began examining the wreckage. They hope to interview the survivors once their medical conditions are stable.
Ironically, officials said Stevens, age 86, the state's most revered politician, had long pushed to improve air safety in Alaska, including a technology that wasn't installed in the downed plane. It is still unclear whether the instruments could have prevented the small plane crash.
A number of medical volunteers found survivors trapped inside the fuselage, with one still strapped into the co-pilot seat. To reach the survivors rescuers had to cut alders to get to the wreckage and then ripped open the plane to get them out.
Stevens and his friends were on a fishing trip to a southwest Alaska. CNN reported that, in a cruel twist of fate, among the dead is pilot Terry Smith, who decided this fishing trip might bring him some peace after his son-in-law was killed two weeks ago in a plane crash outside Anchorage, Alaska.