A small Piper PA-24 plane crashed into shallow waters near Seldovia on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula on Wednesday, killing all four people on board. The aircraft had taken off from Anchorage and was heading for the Seldovia airport, located approximately 135 to 136 miles southwest of Anchorage.
The Alaska Department of Public Safety identified the pilot as 68-year-old Eric Middlebrook of Anchorage. The passengers were identified as Ronald Schmidt, 65, Lance Schmidt, 20, and Daniel Simons, 82, all of whom were from California.
The plane came to rest in about 15 feet of water in the Seldovia Slough near the shore. Troopers were able to extricate the bodies of the four men after waiting for the tide to go out. While the cause of the crash is not yet clear, the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating.
U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan said he is awaiting a briefing from the NTSB and Federal Aviation Administration to determine what went wrong, stating that aviation safety and infrastructure in Alaska remain a top focus. This incident follows another plane crash less than a week earlier at a remote military site in western Alaska, where eight people died while attempting to land in heavy fog.