Planes Collide Over Alaska leaving Four Dead

Trapper Creek, AKTwo single-engine float airplanes collided in mid-air Saturday afternoon near Trapper Creek, Alaska, killing four people. The pilot of the second plane (the only person aboard) made an emergency landing in Anchorage. This is the second airplane crash in Alaska this month.

Yesterday the collision happened at Amber Lake, about 12 miles southwest of Trapper Creek. According to The Anchorage Daily News, one of the planes crashed and burned after the two aircraft collided—four bodies were recovered from the wreckage. The Cessna 180 was destroyed by the impact and fire and the uninjured pilot of the second plane, Kevin Earp of Eagle River, Alaska, managed a dry landing at the Anchorage International Airport on the plane’s skids.

Reuters reports that Alaska State Trooper spokeswoman Megan Peters said the crash is being investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board; so far there the reason for the collision is unknown. The victims have not yet been identified—as of last night the State Medical Examiner’s office was working to identify the dead.

Just earlier this month—July 12—two planes were involved in a collision, also in Alaska. Nine people were aboard a Piper Navajo and four people were in a Cessna 206 floatplane. Amazingly everyone survived the collision and the planes sustained some minor damage. After the July 12 crash, FAA spokesman Mike Fergus commented on the collision as “almost unheard of.”