Search for flightseeing plane halted, four confirmed deceased

The search for a crashed flightseeing plane in the Alaska Range has been halted after four of the five people on board were confirmed dead with the fifth missing as of Monday morning.

According to the National Park Service, a helicopter with rescue personnell on board was able to reach the crash site about fourteen miles southwest of Denali on Monday morning. A ranger was suspended below the helicopter and dug through the snow that had filled airplane. The bodies of four of the five people on board were still inside. The fifth person was not found, and there were no footprints or other disturbances in the snow to indicate that anyone made it out of the aircraft.

The names of the pilot and passengers have not been released.

The DeHaviland Beaver, owned by K2 Aviation in Talkeetna, crashed around 6:00 pm Saturday evening. Rescue crews and spotting aircraft worked through Saturday evening and all day Sunday to attempt to spot the downed plane without success. The last confirmed contact with the plane’s pilot occurred about an hour after the crash. Monday morning was the first look that rescue crews got at the crash site.