Passenger dies from Alaska plane crash
A passenger has died after a twin-engine Peninsula Airways flight crashed Thursday night, officials said.
Alaska Airlines Flight 3296, operated by Peninsula Airways, ran off the runway while landing at Alaska's Unalaska/Dutch Harbor Airport, airline officials said, and stopped just short of plunging into the waters of the bay.
Passenger David Allan Oltman, 38, of Washington state, died as a result, Alaska State Troopers said on Friday.
This is the first U.S. commercial plane passenger death since a passenger died in a Southwest incident last year.
A statement from Peninsula Airways on Friday said: "It is with our deepest sorrow that we have confirmed that one of our critically injured passengers from PenAir Flight 3296 passed away last night."
"Our entire team is devastated by this tragic incident," the statement said. "The thoughts of all 1,300 of our employees are with those who were hurt or affected."
Another passenger was critically injured, and 10 others received medical care, according to Peninsula Airways.
The flight was from Anchorage to Unalaska Island.
The plane, a Saab 2000 turboprop, had three crew members and 39 passengers aboard, including members of the swim team at Alaska's Cordova High School.
"At present, all students and chaperones are accounted for and are OK, albeit a bit shaken up," read a statement posted by superintendent Alex Russin on the school district's website Thursday night.
The statement said that "the team was together, seemed fine, and were eating pizza."
Photos taken afterward showed the plane resting at about at 30-degree angle on a rocky embankment, with its nose just feet from the water.
Freelance photographer Jim Paulin, who witnessed the accident, told the Associated Press that the plane appeared to have been forced beyond its planned landing area by high winds that the area had been experiencing lately.
Unalaska Island is part of the Aleutian Island chain to the west of the Alaskan mainland.
