Stevens' family 'has just been notified that he did not survive' Monday's crash, his former chief of staff says. Ex-NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe was also among nine people aboard; his condition is unknown
By Kim Murphy, Los Angeles Times
Reporting from Seattle —
Ted Stevens, the gruff and bullishly determined longtime former U.S. senator from Alaska, died in Monday crash of a small plane near a small fishing town on Alaska's Bristol Bay, a family spokesman confirmed Tuesday."The family has just been notified that he did not survive," said Mitch Rose, former chief of staff for Stevens, 86, who served 41 years in the Senate before being convicted on corruption charges and losing his seat in 2008. The charges were later dismissed because of prosecutorial misconduct.
Former NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe was also on the plane, which had a total of nine people on board, but there was no word on his condition.
Stevens and O'Keefe reportedly had been traveling to a luxury fishing lodge owned by Alaska telecom company GCI, where high-powered political guests are frequently wined and dined. The downed plane was spotted about 7 p.m. Monday 17 miles north of Dillingham, but rescuers were hampered by high winds and low clouds before getting to the scene Tuesday morning.
Nine people were aboard the private plane, a De Havilland DHC-3T Otter owned by telecom company GCI, that crashed Monday night 17 miles north of Dillingham, a small fishing town on Alaska's Bristol Bay that is now in the height of salmon fishing season. Rescuers were hampered from reaching the crash site overnight by bad weather, authorities said.
"The weather has been hampering pretty much everything going out to the scene," said Alaska State Troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters.
"I can tell you that we have the best search and rescue people pretty much anywhere. They do this pretty much every day, and if we can't get there, that means it's bad and unsafe," Peters said.
The National Transportation Safety Board has dispatched investigators from Anchorage and Washington, D.C. Board chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman is accompanying the team and will serve as spokesperson for the on-scene investigation, the agency said in a statement.
Several "good Samaritans," including a doctor, had reached the site earlier and were rendering emergency aid to the victims, added McHugh Pierre, director of the information office for the Alaska Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.
Stevens, 86, was the elder statesman of Alaska politics. The Republican served 41 years in the U.S. Senate before being convicted on corruption charges and losing his Senate seat in 2008.
The Justice Department later moved to set aside the conviction because of prosecutorial misconduct. Prosecutors admitted they had failed to hand over contradictory statements from a key witness that might have been exculpatory.
Stevens' former wife, Ann, died in a plane crash in 1978 that he survived. Los Angeles Times
