
Ketchikan Volunteer Rescue Squad personnel land and disembark from a Hughes 369D helicopter on Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021, at Temsco Helicopters Inc in Ketchikan, Alaska. The KVRS, U.S. Coast Guard, Alaska State Troopers and U.S. Forest Service responded to a radio beacon alert from a downed Southeast Aviation de Havilland Beaver float plane that was carrying five passengers from the Holland America Line cruise ship Nieuw Amsterdam, according to Coast Guard, Holland America and KVRS information. The sightseeing plane crashed Thursday in southeast Alaska, killing all six people on board, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
The Holland America Line cruise ship Nieuw Amsterdam is docked on Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021, at Berth 4 in Ketchikan, Alaska. Holland America confirmed Thursday that five passengers from the Nieuw Amsterdam were aboard a float plane that crashed Thursday morning during a tour of the Misty Fjords National Monument. There were no survivors, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. The de Havilland Beaver aircraft was owned by Southeast Aviation LLC.
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Foggy, low-visibility conditions hampered efforts to recover the wreckage of a sightseeing plane that crashed in southeast Alaska, killing six people, though federal investigators aimed to reach the site Sunday if conditions allowed, a National Transportation Safety Board official said.
The wreckage was in a rugged, steep area that is heavily forested, at 1,800 feet (548.6 meters) to 2,000 feet (609.6 meters) “up on the side of a mountain,” said Clint Johnson, chief of the agency’s Alaska region. The site is about 12 miles northeast of Ketchikan, Johnson said.
“Very challenging conditions,” Johnson said, adding that the wreckage would have to be removed by helicopter.
He said as of early Sunday afternoon that the team remained on a weather hold. He described conditions at the accident site as having low ceilings, reduced visibility and fog.
Investigators also were conducting interviews in Ketchikan, he said.
The flight was returning to Ketchikan on Thursday from a tour of Misty Fjords National Monument when it crashed, Johnson said.
The plane carried five passengers and the pilot. The Alaska State Troopers identified the pilot as Rolf Lanzendorfer, 64, of Cle Elum, Washington. Troopers identified the passengers as Mark Henderson, 69, and Jacquelyn Komplin, 60, both of Napa, California; Andrea McArthur, 55, and Rachel McArthur, 20, both of Woodstock, Georgia; and Janet Kroll, 77, of Mount Prospect, Illinois.
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