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. (Dustin Safranek / Ketchikan Daily News)
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. (Dustin Safranek / Ketchikan Daily News)

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. (Dustin Safranek / Ketchikan Daily News) 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. (Dustin Safranek / Ketchikan Daily News)

Coast Guard: 6 dead in sightseeing plane crash

Emergency beacon near Alaska’s Misty Fjords National Monument.

This story has been updated to include new information.

By Mark Thiessen and Becky Bohrer

Associated Press

A sightseeing plane crashed Thursday in Southeast Alaska, killing all six people on board, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

The plane’s emergency alert beacon was activated around 11:20 a.m. when the plane crashed in the area of Misty Fjords National Monument, near Ketchikan, the Coast Guard and Federal Aviation Administration said. A helicopter company reported seeing wreckage on a ridgeline in the search area, and Coast Guard crew members found the wreckage around 2:40 p.m. A Coast Guard helicopter lowered two rescue swimmers to the site, and they reported no survivors, the agency said.

The identities of those killed in the crash were not immediately released. The Alaska State Troopers and volunteers from the Ketchikan Volunteer Rescue Squad will coordinate recovery efforts Thursday and Friday.

The plane involved Thursday, a de Havilland Beaver, was owned by Southeast Aviation LLC.

“Our hearts are shattered at the loss of six people today. We are thinking of and grieving with the families of the five passengers and our dear friend and pilot aboard the aircraft,” the company said in a statement. “We are cooperating with the first responders and agencies involved, including the U.S. Coast Guard, National Transportation Safety Board and Alaska State Troopers.”

The five passengers on the flight were from the Holland America Line cruise ship Nieuw Amsterdam, the company said in a statement. The ship stopped in Ketchikan on Thursday and delayed its afternoon departure after the plane crash. The company said it was making counseling services available to guests and crew.

“The float plane excursion was offered by an independent tour operator and not sold by Holland America Line,” the statement said.

Ketchikan is a popular stop for cruise ships visiting Alaska, and cruise ship passengers can take various sightseeing excursions while in port.

Popular among them are small plane flights to Misty Fjords National Monument, where visitors can see glacier valleys, snow-capped peaks and lakes in the wilderness area.

In 2019, two sightseeing planes collided in midair, killing six of the 16 people on board the two planes.

Southeast Aviation on its website says it provides sightseeing tours to Misty Fjords National Monument and bear-viewing sites, along with air charters to other communities in southeast Alaska.

The Coast Guard was told by the plane’s operator that five passengers and a pilot were on board, Wadlow said.

Wadlow did not have details on when the plane took off. Weather conditions were a cloud ceiling of 900 feet (274.32 meters) with mist and light rain. Visibility was 2 miles and winds were 8 mph, the Coast Guard said.

The National Transportation Safety Board is sending a crew to investigate the crash. The team is expected to arrive in Alaska on Friday.

The FAA is also investigating.

More in News

(Juneau Empire file photo)
Aurora forecast through the week of Feb. 1

These forecasts are courtesy of the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Geophysical Institute… Continue reading

(Michael Penn / Juneau Empire file photo)
Police calls for Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025

This report contains public information from law enforcement and public safety agencies.

Blank posts are seen where the two totem poles once stood at the Fred Meyer main entrance on Feb. 7, 2025. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire)
Fred Meyer totem poles get a second chance at life

Tlingit master carver says they will be refurbished with tribal youth and repurposed.

(Michael Penn / Juneau Empire file photo)
Police calls for Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025

This report contains public information from law enforcement and public safety agencies.

(Michael Penn / Juneau Empire file photo)
Police calls for Friday, Feb. 7, 2025

This report contains public information from law enforcement and public safety agencies.

(Michael Penn / Juneau Empire file photo)
Police calls for Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025

This report contains public information from law enforcement and public safety agencies.

Construction progress on a new Kaladi Brothers warehouse in Midtown Anchorage is seen on April 22, 2024. Of all major Alaska economic sectors, construction had the highest percentage increase in nonresident hire in 2023, state economists report. (Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
Nonresident hiring in Alaska hits new record, state analysis shows

The number of nonresidents working in Alaska hit a new record in… Continue reading

President Donald Trump speaks to a capacity crowd at the Alaska Airlines Center in Anchorage on July 9, 2022. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire file photo)
Here’s what Trump, after 20 days of his second term, has done so far specifically affecting Alaska

Nixing rules that limit oil drilling, renaming Mt. McKinley, shaking up U.S. Coast Guard among actions.

President Donald Trump walks away from the podium after speaking about a plane crash at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport during a news conference at the White House in Washington, on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025. President Trumpճ remarks, suggesting that diversity in hiring and other Biden administration policies somehow caused the disaster, reflected his instinct to immediately frame major events through his political or ideological lens. (Doug Mills/The New York Times)
All of the Trump administration’s major moves in the first 20 days

The New York Times is tracking the actions of President Donald Trump… Continue reading

Most Read