Pilot, Five Passengers Killed in Alaska Sightseeing Plane Crash

A sightseeing plane crashed Thursday in southeast Alaska, killing all six people on board, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

The plane’s emergency alert beacon was activated around 11:20 a.m. when the plane crashed in the area of Misty Fjords National Monument, near Ketchikan, the Coast Guard and Federal Aviation Administration said.

A helicopter company reported seeing wreckage on a ridgeline in the search area, and Coast Guard crew members found the wreckage around 2:40 p.m.

A Coast Guard helicopter lowered two rescue swimmers to the site, and they reported no survivors, the agency said.

The identities of those killed in the crash were not immediately released. The five passengers on the flight were from the Holland America Line cruise ship Nieuw Amsterdam, the company said in a statement.