All 4 dead aboard plane after weekend crash near runway in rural Alaska

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The plane crash over the weekend about a half-mile from a runway near the southwestern Alaska town of St. Mary’s killed all four people on board, authorities said.

Alaska State Troopers said they received a report of a late-arriving plane from the Alaska Rescue Coordination Center around 11:15 p.m. Sunday. Troopers who went to the plane’s last known location found the wreckage and the bodies of four men, the agency said. The names of the dead were not immediately released.

Clint Johnson, chief of the National Transportation Safety Board’s Alaska region, said the plane, which left Bethel, was operated by Yute Commuter Service and was believed to be carrying at least two of the company’s employees. An NTSB investigator was expected to arrive in Anchorage on Monday and go to the crash site on Tuesday, weather permitting, Johnson said.

The Associated Press reached out to Yute Commuter Service for comment through its online messaging system.

The company provides scheduled passenger, cargo and charter services and operates throughout the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta region of Alaska. The company was involved in a crash near Tuntutuliak in 2020 that killed five people. the Anchorage Daily News reported.