Airplane Accidents Alaska

A huge AWACS battlefield-radar plane carrying 24 U.S. and Canadian military personnel crashed on takeoff and exploded in a fireball Friday, killing everyone aboard, authorities said. The bodies of 22 crew members were found, and searchers were looking for the remains of the other two Friday evening, said Maj. Jereon Brown, an Air Force spokesman at the base. It was the first crash of an Airborne Warning and Control System plane since the Air Force began using the aircraft in 1977.

A small plane flying to a rural village crashed in the rugged terrain of southwestern Alaska, killing all six people aboard, authorities said. An Army National Guard helicopter crew reached the site of the crash of the Cessna 206 near Music Lake, about 250 miles southwest of Anchorage, and found the victims in the wreckage, said Alaska State Trooper spokesman Tim Despain.

With the spotlight focused squarely on his son's efforts to circumnavigate the globe, Gary Aliengena has remained largely in the background during the "Friendship Flight" of the boy aviator, 11-year-old Tony Aliengena. Until now. The crash of the expedition's plane during takeoff Tuesday evening from a remote Alaskan airstrip with the elder Aliengena at the controls has suddenly thrust the 39-year-old real estate investor onto center stage.

A small plane taking hunters to a campsite in southern Alaska crashed in steep, rocky terrain, killing all five people aboard. The National Park Service worked Thursday to recover the bodies of those killed in the crash at Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, about 160 miles southwest of Anchorage.

A National Guard plane carrying eight people to the Juneau airport crashed into a mountain range Thursday, the Coast Guard reported. Officials said there were no survivors. The wreckage of the C-12F twin-engine Beechcraft was found at the 2,600-foot elevation on the Chilkat Peninsula, Petty Officer Erik Lott said. A Coast Guard helicopter spotted the wreckage in the Chilkat Range about 30 miles west of Juneau and seven miles southeast of Excursion Inlet.

Eight people, including his family, a Soviet pen pal, a reporter and members of a film crew recording Tony Aliengena's Friendship Flight '89, were aboard his Cessna Centurion when it crashed Tuesday on the runway in Golovin, Alaska: -Tony, 11. -Gary Aliengena, 39, a certified pilot who owns the plane and was at the controls. -Susan Aliengena, 39, Tony's mother, who has been in charge of such logistical details as obtaining the visas for all the Americans on the trip.

A small plane plunged into water in southeast Alaska, and there were no known survivors among the four people aboard, Coast Guard officials said after a cutter found the plane early Monday. The single-engine Cessna, which had been en route from Petersburg to Wrangell on Sunday, was found upside down in 12 feet of water near the east shore of Mitkof Island, a Coast Guard spokesman said.

Disputing a witness' account, investigators said that the landing gear appears to have been down on a commuter plane that crashed short of a runway in Homer, Alaska, killing 18 people and injuring three. The Ryan Air twin-engine turboprop smashed through an airport fence and belly-flopped onto snow-covered ground as it tried to land last Monday. Jon Kleine, who was driving near the airport, had said the plane tilted severely during its approach and did not have its landing gear extended.

A commuter plane with five people aboard crashed in the snow 200 feet short of a runway Wednesday at Anchorage International Airport, seriously injuring the pilot, the Federal Aviation Administration said. Three passengers had minor injuries. A spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board said the Cessna 402 commuter plane arriving from Valdez was owned by Wilbur's Flight Service. There was no fire but the aircraft received "substantial damage," he said.

An airplane taking cruise-ship passengers on a sightseeing tour crashed Friday into the side of a mountain, killing the pilot and all five tourists. Wreckage from the single-engine Piper Cherokee was strewn down the mountainside after the 3 p.m. crash near Pyramid Harbor, about 80 miles northwest of Juneau. The plane, owned by the LAB Flying Service, was giving a sightseeing tour to passengers from the cruise ship Sea Spirit. The cause of the crash was not known.

An Air Force lieutenant general who commanded all military forces in Alaska was killed in a private plane crash. A passenger also died. Lt. Gen. David J. McCloud, a San Fernando native, was flying his YAK-54, a single-engine aerobatic plane, when it crashed at Ft. Richardson, east of Anchorage. The cause of the crash was not known. As head of the Alaskan command, McCloud was responsible for more than 21,000 active duty and reserve members of the Army, Air Force, Navy and Alaska National Guard.

A single-engine plane carrying a family of seven bound for a funeral crashed into the Arctic Ocean off Alaska's North Slope. The pilot and all seven family members were killed. The plane crashed two minutes after takeoff from Barrow, the nation's most northern city, 725 miles northwest of Anchorage. The plane was taking the family to the tiny village of Wainwright, 90 miles southwest of Barrow. The casket was on board.

Investigators combed through the wreckage of a crashed Air Force radar plane Saturday to try to discover what caused it to plunge to the ground after takeoff, killing all 24 people aboard. "In an accident this catastrophic, it's difficult to find what parts are exactly what," said Col. Charlie Lambert, head of an interim team of investigators. He said the cockpit voice recorder was recovered and the wreckage of the four engines identified.

A huge AWACS battlefield-radar plane carrying 24 U.S. and Canadian military personnel crashed on takeoff and exploded in a fireball Friday, killing everyone aboard, authorities said. The bodies of 22 crew members were found, and searchers were looking for the remains of the other two Friday evening, said Maj. Jereon Brown, an Air Force spokesman at the base. It was the first crash of an Airborne Warning and Control System plane since the Air Force began using the aircraft in 1977.

An airplane taking cruise-ship passengers on a sightseeing tour crashed Friday into the side of a mountain, killing the pilot and all five tourists. Wreckage from the single-engine Piper Cherokee was strewn down the mountainside after the 3 p.m. crash near Pyramid Harbor, about 80 miles northwest of Juneau. The plane, owned by the LAB Flying Service, was giving a sightseeing tour to passengers from the cruise ship Sea Spirit. The cause of the crash was not known.

Two small planes apparently being used to scout fishing spots collided over the Tazimina River in the Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, killing all five people aboard. The Beaver and Super Cub hit head-on in clear weather Tuesday, officials said.

One passenger died and about 150 were injured when a Chinese Eastern Airlines jet bound for Los Angeles ran into severe turbulence and was forced to land at Shemya Air Force Base on a remote Aleutian island, Air Force officials said. The military airlifted about 150 injured passengers to Anchorage. Officials said several of the injuries were critical. The flight, with 265 passengers aboard, almost all of them Chinese, originated in Shanghai, China.

One passenger died and about 150 were injured when a Chinese Eastern Airlines jet bound for Los Angeles ran into severe turbulence and was forced to land at Shemya Air Force Base on a remote Aleutian island, Air Force officials said. The military airlifted about 150 injured passengers to Anchorage. Officials said several of the injuries were critical. The flight, with 265 passengers aboard, almost all of them Chinese, originated in Shanghai, China.

A National Guard plane carrying eight people to the Juneau airport crashed into a mountain range Thursday, the Coast Guard reported. Officials said there were no survivors. The wreckage of the C-12F twin-engine Beechcraft was found at the 2,600-foot elevation on the Chilkat Peninsula, Petty Officer Erik Lott said. A Coast Guard helicopter spotted the wreckage in the Chilkat Range about 30 miles west of Juneau and seven miles southeast of Excursion Inlet.