A small private airplane crashed near the Seldovia airport Saturday evening. Seldovia’s police chief Paul Cushman says five people were on board the aircraft but no one was injured.
He adds that the plane crashed almost immediately after it took off:
“They were taking off from the Seldovia airport and everything was normal but they just didn’t quite have enough power to clear some trees,” he said. “They ended up kind of clipping the tops of those trees, which then caused them to obviously lose even more power and they kind of crashed landed into a little body of water here.”
He says a resident who lives near the lagoon where the plane crashed helped assist those on board and called local authorities. Cushman says no one from the plane requested medical help.
“They were obviously very fortunate,” he said. “About as miraculous as a plane crash as you can have. If it would've been another minute into the flight or so, they would have actually crashed into the ocean, versus where they did.”
Cushman notes that the plane’s passengers were just visiting Seldovia and have since left the city via other transportation. But he says the plane sustained significant damage and is still there.
The National Transportation Safety Board says they are still deciding whether to investigate the crash, depending on the level of damage to the airplane and other variables.
