A small plane crash near the remote Alaskan town of Seldovia has claimed the lives of four men, including the former mayor of Bethel, Alaska. The pilot, identified as Eric Middlebrook, 68, of Anchorage, was an experienced flyer who had been piloting for decades.
The Piper PA-24 was en route from Anchorage to Seldovia, a town located approximately 135 miles southwest, when the incident occurred Wednesday. The passengers were identified as Ronald Schmidt, 65, Lance Schmidt, 20, and Daniel Simons, 82, all from California.
Middlebrook, who also owned a commercial refrigerator business, had served on the Bethel City Council and as mayor. Bethel, a town of 6,000 people, is situated on the Kuskokwim River. He had moved to Anchorage in recent years but continued to visit Bethel, where he was a familiar presence, according to Mark Springer, a member of the Bethel City Council.
"He was a fixture in the community and he was a respected guy. He was known all over the YK (Yukon–Kuskokwim) Delta. It’s a tragic loss," Springer said.
After the crash, the aircraft came to rest in approximately 15 feet of water in the Seldovia Slough. Responders had to wait for the tide to recede before recovering the victims. A statement from Seldovia's website noted the immediate assistance provided by neighbors, friends, and first responders.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the cause of the crash.
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska commented on the incident, noting the challenging realities of transportation in the state. "Our vast distances and lack of road connections mean we depend on aviation to knit our state together, which makes accidents like this all the more heartbreaking," she said in a social media post.
This crash follows another fatal small plane incident in western Alaska less than a week prior, where eight people died when their aircraft crashed while making a second approach to a runway in heavy fog.