ANCHORAGE, Alaska — District officials were determining what to do after a small plane carrying all three teachers for a remote Alaska village crashed in the wilderness, killing one of the teachers, three days before classes were to begin.
The pilot also died when the plane went down in poor visibility Saturday night in interior Alaska, officials said.
Karen Ladegard, superintendent of the Iditarod School District, said Sunday the single-engine Cessna 207 was returning to the community of Anvik when it crashed.
The survivors were flown to an Anchorage hospital, Alaska State Troopers spokeswoman Beth Ipsen said.
Karen Ladegard, superintendent of the Iditarod School District, identified the injured as Don and Rosemary Evans, their 10-year-old son, Don Jr., and 8-year-old daughter, McKenzie.
The couple were set to share a teaching position at the 18-student school, where classes were scheduled to begin Wednesday. Ladegard told The Anchorage Daily News that the district's management team assembled Sunday evening to decide what to do.
She said she spoke by phone to Rosemary Evans, who said from the hospital that many of the injuries are broken bones. None of the injuries appear life-threatening, Ladegard said.
Ladegard said the two who died were Julie Walker, a lifelong Anvik resident and longtime teacher in the village, and the pilot, Ernie Chase, who was originally from Anvik. Residents in the community of 85 were reeling, Ladegard said.
"Everybody is calling me. They're devastated," she told The Associated Press late Sunday afternoon in a phone interview from the community of McGrath.
The teachers had been in the small town of McGrath, 225 miles northwest of Anchorage, for training, the Daily News reported.
The Cessna left McGrath on Saturday evening and was headed to Anvik, about 140 miles to the west.
Later Saturday, a personal spot beacon transmitting a 911 signal was activated, showing the plane 37 miles west of McGrath. The Alaska National Guard's Rescue Coordination Center in Anchorage coordinated the ensuing search, which was hampered by poor weather, Guard officials said.
The Cessna's emergency locator beacon helped searchers pinpoint the exact location, said Benjamin Morgan, a ground crew member for Aniak-based Inland Aviation.
Morgan said the plane crashed in hilly, rough terrain. He said there was heavy mist at the time and visibility was between two and three miles.
The crash is being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board.
The deadly crash follows two recent midair collisions in the state, including one that killed an Anchorage family of four.
On July 30, an Anchorage pilot and his family died in a collision between their single-engine plane and another aircraft around Amber Lake near Trapper Creek, 80 miles north of Anchorage. The pilot of the other plane was alone in the aircraft and uninjured.
On July 10, nine people aboard a Piper Navajo and four people in a Cessna 206 were uninjured when the planes collided as they were flying directly toward each other in Lake Clark Pass — a narrow river valley that runs between Anchorage mountains. Both aircraft had minor damage but were able to land safely in Anchorage.