Alaska Plane Crash - Cold night crept by for survivors Baton Rouge, LA
DILLINGHAM, Alaska (AP) — Former Sen. Ted Stevens lay dead in the mangled fuselage of the plane. A 13-year-old boy escaped death but his father died a few feet away. Medical workers spent the miserable night tending to survivors’ broken bones amid a huge slick of fuel that coated a muddy mountainside.
The gruesome details of the plane crash that killed Stevens and four others emerged as investigators tried to figure out how the float plane crashed into a mountain during a fishing trip. Three teenagers and their parents were on the plane, including the former head of NASA.
Authorities were studying weather patterns to understand if overcast skies, rain and gusty winds played a role in a crash that claimed the life of the most revered politician in Alaska history.
The Republican was remembered as a towering political figure who brought billions of dollars to the state during his 40 years in the Senate - a career that ended amid a corruption trial in 2008. The case was later tossed out.
A pilot who was one of the first to arrive at the scene described a horrific scene of airplane wreckage, fuel, rainy weather, dead bodies and frightened survivors.
As he helped shuttle a doctor and two EMTs to the scene about three hours after the crash, Tom Tucker described seeing a survivor still strapped in the front seat with the nose of the plane disintegrated. His head was cut, and his legs appeared to be broken.
“The front of the aircraft was gone,” Tucker said. “He was just sitting in the chair.”
He and other responders made a tarp tent over the missing cockpit to keep him dry. It was rainy and cold, and he believes the passengers’ heavy duty waders protected them when they went into shock. Temperatures ranged from about 48 degrees to 50 degrees overnight at Dillingham.
“These individuals were cold. We covered them up with blankets and made them as comfortable as we could.”
Master Sgt. Jonathan Davis, one of the first National Guardsmen to reach the crash site, told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that the waders helped the injured by acting “as sort of a survival-type blanket,” keeping body heat in and water out.
The flights at Dillingham are often perilous through the mountains, even in good weather. NTSB chairwoman Deborah Hersman said weather conditions at the time of the accident included light rain, clouds and gusty winds.