The tidal mechanics of Alaska's coastal sloughs impose a hard constraint on accident response: when a plane goes down in shallow tidal water, recovery waits on the tide. That physical reality played out Wednesday after a Piper PA-24-260 crashed in the Seldovia Slough, about 136 miles southwest of Anchorage, killing all four people aboard.
The aircraft had departed Merrill Field Airport in Anchorage and was bound for the airport at Seldovia, a small remote coastal town, when it went down at approximately 1:18 p.m., according to the Alaska Department of Public Safety. Alaska State Troopers were notified and coordinated the response. A helicopter crew from Anchorage flew to the crash site while additional troopers traveled by boat from Anchor Point.
Recovery constrained by the tide
The plane came to rest fully submerged in roughly 15 feet of water near the shoreline of the Seldovia Slough. Clint Johnson, the National Transportation Safety Board's Alaska region chief, confirmed the submersion depth. With the crash at approximately 1:18 p.m. and the tide dropping at around 6:30 p.m., troopers were held back for more than five hours before they could access the aircraft. Once the water receded, responders recovered the bodies of all four adult victims. Those remains will go to the state medical examiner's office for autopsy. The victims' identities have not been released; the Alaska Department of Public Safety said next of kin are still being notified.
The cause of the crash remains unknown. The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation.
A second fatal crash in the same week
The Seldovia accident follows a crash last week at a remote military site in western Alaska that killed all eight people on board. That aircraft, a Cessna, was on its second runway approach in heavy fog when it went down. Officials said the two pilots were flying solely by instruments and struggling to see the gravel airstrip. Regulations required the crew to abandon the first approach because of inadequate visibility. The plane came down on its second attempt, about one-third of a mile from the runway.