ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Three people were killed after two sightseeing airplanes carrying cruise ship tourists collided in midair Monday near a southeast Alaska town, the Coast Guard said.Three others are missing after the collision about 10 miles (16 kilometres) from Ketchikan, Coast Guard Lt. Brian Dykens said.The Coast Guard had a cutter onsite and planned to work overnight to find the missing.The National Transportation Board was sending an elite investigative team from Washington, D.C., to investigate the crash, another deadly mishap for cruise ship passengers taking side excursions off cruise ships in Ketchikan.The floatplanes with passengers from Princess Cruisesī Royal Princess ship collided under unknown circumstances, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Allen Kenitzer said in an email to The Associated Press. Floatplanes have pontoons mounted under the fuselage so they can land on water.Eleven people were inside Taquan Airīs single-engine de Havilland Otter DHC-3 when it went down as it returned from Misty Fjords National Monument, which is part of the Tongass National Forest, the nationīs largest. Ten were taken to a Ketchikan hospital.All patients were in fair or good condition, according to Marty West, a spokeswoman for PeaceHealth Ketchikan Medical Center.The three people who died were among five people aboard the second plane, a single-engine de Havilland DHC-2 Beaver, according to Dykens.Local emergency responders worked with state and federal agencies and good Samaritan vessels to help rescue and recover victims.`Itīs been a long day and the crews have been working really hard to rescue people and recover the deceased. Theyīre still working on a search and recovery of three more individuals,` Deanna Thomas, a spokeswoman for the Ketchikan Gateway Borough, the local government, said Monday evening.All 14 passengers were on sightseeing flights. The plane with 11 on board was operated by Taquan Air. A spokeswoman for the flightseeing company said ...
|
