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For Alaskans who track political history, the airplane accident that killed Eugene “Buzzy” Peltola, husband of Alaska Congresswoman Mary Peltola, triggers grim memories.

There was the 2010 crash that killed former Sen. Ted Stevens in Southwest Alaska. The 1978 crash in Anchorage that killed Stevens’s first wife, Ann, and four others, including the husband of a state legislator. The disappearance in 1972, a plane carrying Alaska’s then-congressman, Nick Begich, and House Majority Leader Hale Boggs.

It’s not just political figures. Aviation safety in Alaska lags the rest of the country, but recent data point to possible improvements.

According to the Air Safety Institute, Alaska’s fatality rate per hours flown in small private aircraft used to be almost twice as high as elsewhere. It has declined dramatically since 2016, but is still higher than the national average. Same for air taxis and other small commercial aircraft.

Colleen Mondor, a Fairbanks pilot and aviation writer with encyclopedic knowledge of Alaska’s plane accidents, thinks aviation safety in Alaska hasn’t garnered sustained national attention, because each accident results in only a few fatalities.

“Every now and again there’s a big one, a mid-air … that breaks through the national news,” she said “But mostly we die like this – one or two or three at a time. It just gets lost.”

She’s sick of seeing the blame placed on Alaska’s weather. Other places have severe weather, too, she said.

“It’s not the weather. Okay?’” she said. “It’s not that ‘Oh, my God, that weather was so bad.’ It’s what was the information provided on the weather?”

The real problem, she and other aviation experts say, is that Alaska hasn’t had enough safety infrastructure, like paved runways, statewide communication coverage and — one of the most critical – weather reporting equipment.

In Alaska, the FAA and the National Weather Service manage about 140 automated weather stations that provide crucial information to pilots.

Tom George, Alaska manager for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, said that’s not nearly enough.

“We’d have to get about 180 more stations in Alaska to have the same average density that the rest of the country enjoys,” he said.

Telecom and radar gaps leave Alaska pilots in the dark in some spots, he said.

The FAA declined interview requests on Friday but said it is making improvements.

“We’re increasing and improving weather data reporting and forecasting, expanding satellite-based air-traffic control coverage to more areas, improving navigation charting, and publishing new GPS-guided routes that allow pilots to navigate direct flight paths at lower altitudes to avoid icing conditions,” the agency said in an email.

George also credits the FAA for installing more weather cameras, which he said in some ways provide more useful information than weather stations, and they can be installed in mountain passes and other critical remote spots.

“That’s proven to be a great way to actually get a look directly at the weather and help people figure out whether they should take off or whether they should drink more coffee and wait for better conditions to improve,” he said.

In July, the U.S. House passed an FAA reform bill that would, among other things, call for more weather equipment to be deployed in Alaska. Congresswoman Peltola voted for it last summer and urged the Senate to do the same.

So far, there’s no indication that Alaska’s weather or aviation infrastructure played a role in Buzzy Peltola’s death. The National Transportation Safety Board said it will take up to three weeks for a preliminary report, and a final report could take up to two years.

Eugene “Buzzy” Peltola Jr.’s fatal plane crash on Tuesday is yet another point in Alaska’s grim aviation statistics.

A 2021 investigation from ProPublica and Unalaska public radio station KUCB found that since 2016, 42% of U.S. deaths from small aircraft crashes occurred in Alaska, up from 26% in the early 2000s.

“I don’t think we ever really want to accept it, though, because we know that there are ways to make aviation safer,” said longtime Alaska journalist and writer Charles Wohlforth.

High-profile Alaskans aren’t immune; many political figures and their loved ones have died in crashes. In 1972, a small plane carrying then-Congressman Nick Begich, then-U.S. House Majority Leader Hale Boggs, a staffer and a pilot disappeared in the Portage area.

In 1994, Alaska Department of Public Safety Deputy Commissioner Claude Swackhammer and a state trooper died in a plane crash near Haines.

In 2010, Alaska’s longest-serving U.S. senator, Ted Stevens, was among five people killed when a floatplane crashed north of Dillingham. He had survived a plane crash in Anchorage in 1978 that killed his first wife and four others.

In 2020, state Rep. Gary Knopp was among the seven people killed in a midair collision on the Kenai Peninsula.

“Some of these crashes are like markers in our history,” Wohlforth said. “I mean, you think about the Begich-Boggs crash, which really changed the course of history. … You know, the Ted Stevens crash, again, a hugely impactful event.”

Wohlforth said everyone who’s lived in Alaska a long time knows someone who’s died in plane crashes. He was a child living in Juneau when the state’s worst aviation disaster unfolded.

In 1971, a Juneau-bound Alaska Airlines plane crashed near the capital city, killing 111 people. Wohlforth remembers helicopters flying into town with bags hanging beneath them with what he figured were crash wreckage and remains.

“Everybody knew lots of people on that plane, because Juneau’s a small town,” he said. “I mean, all these crashes are indelibly in our memory. And there’ve been so many of them. And yet, you know, it’s something we really can’t get used to, shouldn’t get used to.”

He said Alaskans shouldn’t accept the high rate of aviation wrecks.

“It’s a danger to say, ‘This is just a cost of doing business,’” he said. “I think certainly, there will always be crashes, but it’s important not to be numb to it. You know, maybe this is a really good time to reapply ourselves and look again at what’s causing this.”

The pilot of a small plane was seriously injured Sunday after crashing near Excursion Inlet, about 35 miles northwest of Juneau.

Coast Guard personnel responded after getting an alert from the plane’s emergency locator transmitter at 5:31 p.m. Sunday, according to a news release from the U.S. Coast Guard.

The crew of an Air Station Sitka MH-60 Jayhawk found the wrecked, single-engine plane about an hour and a half later and extracted the sole occupant, who was in critical condition.

The injured person was brought back to the Juneau airport and transferred to emergency medical services there.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

It’s hard to fathom now, but we used to be able to arrive at the airport just minutes before a flight. We’d keep our shoes and coats on as we went through a simple metal detector, and virtually anyone could go right to the gate without a boarding pass or even showing an ID.

The 19 al-Qaida-affiliated terrorists who hijacked four commercial jetliners on Sept. 11, 2001, knew that and exploited lax airport security measures, strolling through metal detectors at four airport security checkpoints with ease, with deadly weapons in hand. This allowed the hijackers to commandeer those airplanes and use them as jet fuel-filled missiles as they flew them into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Shanksville, Pa., killing nearly 3,000 people.

“It was so easy — a lot of us were surprised it hadn’t happened sooner,” says Jeff Price, who was assistant security director at Denver International Airport on Sept. 11, 2001, and is now an aviation security expert at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

Airport security at that time was carried out by private contractors, usually hired by the airlines, with few federal standards. Those security contracts usually went to the lowest bidder.

“Before 9/11, security was almost invisible, and it was really designed to be that way,” Price says. “It was designed to be something in the background that really wasn’t that noticeable and definitely did not interfere with aircraft or airport operations.”

“You could walk up to the gate at the very last minute. You did not have to have a boarding pass,” Price says. “All you had to do was go through the security checkpoint — no questions asked, no ID needed.”

That forever changed on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001.

Now, travelers often stand in long lines at security checkpoints with wait times that can exceed an hour. We take off our shoes, empty our pockets and take laptops and other devices out of carry-on bags before stepping into high-resolution, full-body scanners, while our bags go through 3D-imaging X-ray machines. And don’t forget to take your liquids of 3.4 ounces or less out of your carry-on.

Some of us enroll in known- or trusted-traveler programs such as PreCheck, surrendering some of our privacy in an effort to have a smoother expedited screening process.

Aviation security experts acknowledge that prior to 9/11, no one envisioned suicide terrorists wanting to use commercial airplanes as weapons and being willing to kill themselves in order to kill hundreds of innocent people.

Now, counterterrorism and homeland security officials in the federal government work to imagine the unimaginable and enhance defenses to prevent the ever-changing and growing threats to aviation security.

Here’s a look at how airport security has evolved over the past 20 years.

Sept. 11, 2001: Terrorists hijack and crash four passenger jets

The 19 hijackers checked in for their flights at the airport in Portland, Maine, at Boston’s Logan International Airport, at Liberty International Airport in Newark, N.J., and at Dulles International Airport in the Washington, D.C., area.

When Mohamed Atta checked in at the Portland airport with a fellow hijacker for their short flight to Boston, he was selected for additional scrutiny under what was then known as CAPPS (Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System). But according to The 9/11 Commission Report, “Under security rules in place at the time, the only consequence of Atta’s selection by CAPPS was that his checked bags were held off the plane until it was confirmed that he had boarded the aircraft. This did not hinder Atta’s plans.”

Several of the other hijackers were flagged by CAPPS at the other airports, but none was questioned and they were allowed to board in the same way Atta was — without much additional scrutiny. As they strolled through metal detectors at the airports, a couple of the hijackers set off alarms, but they were quickly cleared and sent on their way after going through a second metal detector or being scanned by a hand-held wand. It’s not clear what exactly set off the alarms, but according to The 9/11 Commission Report, the hijackers used knives and/or razor blades in their attacks, which they likely had on them or in their carry-on bags. Even if those weapons were detected, it wouldn’t have mattered.

“The FAA allowed knives of up to 4 inches in length on board an aircraft,” says Price, the aviation security expert. “So even if the hijackers would have been caught with their knives prior to boarding the plane, the screeners would have handed it right back to them. “By 8:00 A.M. on the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001, they had defeated all the security layers that America’s civil aviation security system then had in place to prevent a hijacking,” The 9/11 Commission Report states.

September and October 2001: enhanced airport security, fewer Americans flying, longer wait times in airport security lines

After the planes hit the twin towers and the Pentagon, the Federal Aviation Administration immediately ordered all remaining commercial aircraft still in the air to land at the nearest available airport. All flights remained grounded until Sept. 14. But when air travel did resume, very few Americans were willing to fly. Nonetheless, in the days and weeks after the stunning terrorist attacks, airport security immediately intensified.

Armed National Guard soldiers joined local and state police in some cities to help patrol airports and screen travelers. Knives, box cutters, razors and other types of blades were banned, and the list of other items prohibited on aircraft grew significantly.

Airport security officers began searching through carry-on bags and patting down passengers, and that, according to Price, is when wait times in airport security lines started to grow longer, even though few Americans were flying. He says authorities were “slowing down the lines at the checkpoint to do a more thorough search of passengers and baggage.”

November 2001: The Aviation and Transportation Security Act creates the TSA; checked baggage screened by X-rays

Congress passed and President George W. Bush signed the law that would create the Transportation Security Administration, which would become part of the newly created Cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security.

In addition to creating the TSA, the Aviation and Transportation Security Act required 100% of all checked baggage to be screened by X-rays, the Federal Air Marshal Service was expanded to put more armed air marshals on many more flights, and the law required airlines to reinforce cockpit doors on their aircraft to prevent attackers from entering.

The law also mandated that the TSA oversee security for all modes of transportation, such as passenger rail (including Amtrak) and intercity bus travel. Experts say the TSA was a major step forward in improving security.

December 2001: the shoe bomber and how shoe removal at airport security checkpoints started

On Dec. 22, 2001, on an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami, British-born terrorist Richard Reid tried to detonate explosives that he had packed in his shoes. Passengers subdued and restrained Reid as the flight was diverted to Boston, the closest airport.

Investigators later said that Reid had enough explosive material to blow a hole in the fuselage of the plane, but that rainy weather and Reid’s foot perspiration made the fuse too damp to ignite. Reid pleaded guilty to eight terrorism-related charges in October 2002 and was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences and 110 years, with no possibility of parole. The incident led to the TSA and airlines asking passengers to voluntarily remove their shoes when going through screening at airport security checkpoints.

December 2002: deploying explosives detection systems, very detailed 3D images

The TSA meets the mandate to screen 100% of all checked luggage by deploying machines that can scan bags for explosives and other dangerous weapons in every airport in the country.

The technology used in these screening systems has improved greatly over the intervening years, according to Deb Scovel, a TSA baggage and checkpoint supervisor at Chicago O’Hare International Airport, who says today’s X-ray scanners are similar to CT scanners used in hospitals.

“The X-rays take images of it from all sides,” says Scovel, “so it does an all-around picture of whatever goes inside so you see it from every point of view.” She says the 3D images are so detailed that “I can tell you the difference between Irish Spring and Dove soap — yes, I can. And officers that have been here a while can do the same thing. You can tell the difference between an Apple and a Dell laptop; they’re very detailed.”

April 2003: Pilots start to carry firearms on board flights, and other cockpit protections

The first pilots certified under a voluntary program allowing them to carry handguns were on board flights. Bush signed the Arming Pilots Against Terrorism Act into law in November 2002, and the TSA began training flight deck personnel on how to use firearms on board, if needed, soon after.

Also in April 2003, the TSA announced that all airlines had met the requirement to reinforce cockpit doors on their entire fleets of planes.

Pilots and their unions continue to push for additional cockpit barriers and fortifications to protect them from possible attacks from outside the cockpit.

August 2006: liquids banned, shoe removal mandated and more air marshals added

British authorities disrupted a terrorist plot to detonate liquid explosives on board 10 commercial aircrafts bound from London to various cities in the U.S. and Canada. U.K. prosecutors alleged the would-be bombers prepared to disguise the explosives as soft drinks in 500-milliliter branded plastic bottles.

As a result, the TSA banned all liquids, gels and aerosols from passenger carry-on luggage.

A month later, in September 2006, the TSA lifted the ban on liquids and amended its rule to allow airline passengers to carry liquids, gels and aerosols in containers of only 3.4 ounces or less in a single, clear, resealable 1-quart plastic bag that had to be removed from carry-on baggage when going through security screening.

August 2006 is also when the TSA began to require that all travelers remove their shoes so footwear could be screened for explosives at airport security checkpoints.

The TSA also began deploying more federal air marshals, including on international flights.

March 2008: Canine units join airport security forces

Although bomb-sniffing dogs were already being used in a limited capacity as part of transportation security, the TSA began deploying canine teams to specifically aid in the screening of cargo loaded onto passenger aircraft at U.S. airports.

The program later expanded to use dogs to detect possible explosive materials on passengers and in checked and carry-on baggage.

December 2009: the “underwear bomber” and the installation of full-body scanners

On Christmas Day 2009 on board a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit, al-Qaida extremist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to detonate an improvised explosive device that he had hidden in his underwear.

Abdulmutallab later told FBI agents that he had been following the jetliner’s flight path on his seat back’s screen, as he wanted to blow up the plane over U.S. soil. Inside his briefs, he had explosive chemicals that would ignite when mixed. After going into the plane’s lavatory to make final preparations, he returned to his seat and pushed a plunger to mix the chemicals.

But the volatile mix didn’t explode as he intended, possibly because of excess moisture after the chemicals were inside his pants for so long. The mixture only caught fire, seriously burning Abdulmutallab, who tried to get his burning pants off before fellow passengers and crew members subdued him.

Abdulmutallab later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison.

In response to the failed attack in which a terrorist was able to sneak dangerous explosives through security, in March 2010 the TSA began installing hundreds of full-body scanners that used advanced imaging technology.

By the end of 2010, approximately 500 such machines were deployed nationwide.

December 2011: TSA PreCheck begins, vetted travelers pay to go through shorter security lines

With hundreds of millions of travelers passing through the TSA’s airport security checkpoints each year, the agency wanted a better way to discern who was and who wasn’t a serious threat. So it started its known- and trusted-traveler PreCheck program to provide expedited screening for those willing to pay for it and undergo a more detailed background check.

The TSA says it makes risk assessments about passengers prior to their arrival at airport checkpoints via these thorough background checks. Vetted travelers pay $85 for a five-year membership and get to go through a shorter security line where they no longer have to remove shoes and belts.

The TSA, meanwhile, says it is able to focus resources on more high-risk and unknown passengers.

June 2015: TSA flunks undercover tests

The TSA’s inspector general reported that 95% of the time, TSA officers failed to detect weapons, explosives and other prohibited items that undercover agents smuggled through various airport security checkpoints.

The astronomically high failure rate led to the reassignment of Melvin Carraway, who was then the TSA’s acting director. It also prompted significant changes in TSA training and procedures, including enhanced screening and increased random searches.

March and June 2016: attack outside Turkish airport security perimeter, concerns about soft targets

In June 2016, three suicide bombers who had been turned away at an airport security checkpoint opened fire with semiautomatic weapons before detonating explosive belts at Ataturk Airport’s international terminal in Istanbul, killing themselves and 45 other people, while injuring more than 200.

That deadly assault followed a similar coordinated terrorist attack just three months earlier that killed 32 people and injured more than 300 at an airport terminal and subway station in Brussels. The incidents raised concerns about what security experts call soft targets — the areas outside the hard security perimeter where large groups of people wait at baggage claim, line up at check-in counters and kiosks or queue up to go through security checkpoints.

Some critics, including counterterrorism expert Tom Mockaitis at Chicago’s DePaul University, say it exposes a flawed approach to security.

“I’ve seen, in this country, us waste literally millions of dollars on what I call placebo security — highly visual measures like armed guards strutting up and down in our airports, you know, creating a feeling of well-being and a feeling of security without providing any real added benefit,” Mockaitis told NPR in July 2016.

March 2017: the laptop ban

The Trump administration, citing threats gathered from credible intelligence sources, prohibited travelers from certain countries from bringing laptops, tablets and other large electronic devices into the cabin on commercial flights to the United States.

John Kelly, secretary of homeland security at the time, said the intelligence indicated that terrorists were developing bombs powerful enough to bring down an airplane but small enough to be hidden inside those devices. The laptop ban affected travelers from 10 airports in eight countries with majority-Muslim populations.

“We didn’t feel at the time that overseas airports had the kind of security initially that could give me a comfort that they could detect this device, the airports in those countries,” Kelly said a couple of months after the ban was imposed.

The laptop ban was lifted in July 2017.

June 2017: facial recognition, biometric screening and privacy concerns

In 2017, some airlines, in collaboration with the TSA, began trials of facial recognition software that allows passengers’ faces to be their boarding passes.

The system takes a photo and matches it with one on file with the airlines, speeding up the passenger-screening process and providing greater customer convenience. And because users of the system must be enrolled in the federal government’s known-traveler program, it provides an extra layer of security.

But this and other biometric-screening methods, which could allow the government to track your whereabouts at home and abroad, raise significant privacy concerns, as NPR’s Asma Khalid reported.

Aviation security experts say the TSA’s efforts to expand the use of facial recognition and biometric screening was significantly delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic but could begin to ramp up again in the next couple of years.

September 2021: still room for improvement but layers of hard and soft security

TSA officials say aviation security continues to evolve to address ever-changing threats, with a layered approach that involves surveillance, intelligence and technology. The agency has 65,000 employees and spends billions of dollars each year in an effort to stay one step ahead of potential foreign and domestic terrorists.

“People are very creative. The threats are very creative,” says Louis Traverzo, the TSA’s deputy federal security director. He adds: “It’s up to us to anticipate that, and it’s up to us to look at those things and try to come up with ideas to counter methods” that terrorists may come up with.

There hasn’t been a successful attack against commercial aviation in the U.S. in the 20 years since 9/11, and outside experts agree that while there is still room for improvement, the TSA has been effective in preventing another terrorist attack.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

The oil industry’s pushback against electric vehicles arrived in Anchorage last week, but Alaska fans of the vehicles say the criticism is misplaced.

The president of the American Petroleum Institute, speaking at the Alaska Oil and Gas Association conference on Aug. 30, blasted a proposed Biden administration rule aimed at accelerating use of electric vehicles.

“The Biden administration proposal to regulate tailpipe emissions is one of the most sweeping consequential and far-reaching regulatory proposals that we’ve seen so far,” API President Mike Sommers told the AOGA audience.

“I’ve been here in Alaska for a few days. I’ve yet to see an EV. As many of you know, because you don’t buy them, these EVs don’t work in cold weather. This is not a solution for Alaska,” Sommers said. “We know that isn’t the right solution for the United States. We know it’s not even a practical solution. And it’s certainly not a solution for Alaska.”

Conversion of the auto fleet from gas power to electric power is seen as a long-term threat to the oil industry in Texas and elsewhere – and the Biden administration proposal, which sets a target of EVs making up two-thirds of new car sales by 2032, has been vehemently opposed by oil and gas organizations and by politicians from states that produce fossil fuels. Sommers echoed those arguments, saying the proposal shows the need to “get government out of the business of mandating how we fuel our cars or how we cook our food.”

Alaska EV fans say Sommers’ claims about the state are incorrect.

There are about 2,300 electric vehicles in use in Alaska, according to Chugach Electric Association, making them a tiny but rapidly growing share of the state’s auto market.

“Tell the oil guy not to be such a lump of coal,” said Dimitri Shein, executive director of the Alaska Electric Vehicle Association.

Shein spoke from a coffee shop where he was looking out the window at the Tesla he has been driving in Alaska for the past six years. It has performed well, he said, including during last summer’s Arctic Road Rally, in which he and others drove their EVs from Fairbanks to the northern point of the Dalton Highway at Prudhoe Bay and back.

The main challenge for EV use in Alaska, Shein said, is not the Alaska environment but a too-sparse charging infrastructure. Fast-charging stations, which can power up EVs in as little as 20 minutes, are much in demand, but there is only one in Anchorage and none in Girdwood, he noted. Most EV owners charge their cars at home, he said.

Through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Alaska has been allocated $52 million to boost its EV charging network. The money is to come in over five years and is being administered by the Alaska Energy Authority.

As for the argument that EVs cannot work in Alaska’s cold climate, Shein said, “that’s just another scare tactic.”

He does need to charge his car more frequently in winter, every day or two, compared to the general summer schedule of about once every three days, he said. That is in part because snow on roads requires more energy for vehicles to navigate, he said. But there are advantages to EV use in winter over gasoline-fueled cars, too, he said.

“I can warm my car up in the garage, which I can’t do with a gas car,” he said.

Others in Alaska have positions that fall between those expressed by Sommers and Shein. Among those with doubts about expanded EV use in some areas in Alaska is the state’s lone U.S. House representative.

Even with an expanding market charging network, it will be difficult to carry out the proposed Biden administration rule in rural areas where electricity costs are notoriously high, said Rep. Mary Peltola, D-Alaska.

“Here’s the thing: If you are paying 11 cents a kilowatt-hour, like you are in Juneau, it works really well. But if you’re paying 67 cents a kilowatt-hour and it’s generated by diesel, is that ultimately the right direction? If you live in a community that has affordable energy, electricity rates, and if that electricity is generated in a low-carbon way, then it makes sense. But if either one of those isn’t true, then it doesn’t make sense,” she said in a brief interview last week.

She and Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Washington, are asking for leniency to accommodate rural regions. Climate change is a serious threat, and an energy transition is needed, the two said in an April letter to the heads of the departments of Transportation and Energy and the Environmental Protection agency.  “However, in making that transition, we cannot leave rural communities or working families behind,” their letter said.

Peltola said she is open to suggestions about making EV use more practical in rural Alaska. “I’m happy to work with everybody and anyone and make it work here. If this helps drive our electric rates down, then I’m on board,” she said.

EPA Administrator Michael Regan, who spent much of last week on an Alaska tour, said the administration is listening to those pleas for leniency. The plan is for the new rule to be flexible enough to account for varying conditions and needs across geographic areas, he said.

“I think that what I’ve done is try to balance what we want to do from an environmental standpoint along with the available technology. We recognize that EVs will be a significant piece of that. But we also recognize that advanced biofuels will also be a significant piece of that,” he said during a Thursday news conference in Anchorage.

The administration understands that “in different parts of the country people would like to have different options and different solutions,” he said.

The goal is to have a rule that accomplishes emissions reductions however possible, he said.

“That’s what this discussion should be about. And I’m listening to everyone, all of our stakeholders, over the next couple of months as we think about: How do we finalize our car and truck rules?” he said.

There is one cold region of the world where the transition to EVs has been swift: Scandinavia.

Norway is the “EV capital of the world,” according to that country’s tourism office, and 79% of the cars sold there in 2022 were electric, the Paris-based International Energy Agency reports. Another 9% were hybrids. Other Nordic nations also have high rates of EV sales in 2022, ranging from 38% in Finland to 70% in Iceland, according to the IEA.

Tax incentives, an abundance of charging stations and other government policies have made EVs popular in the Nordic nations, according to the IEA.

This story originally appeared in the Alaska Beacon and is republished here with permission.

A de Havilland Beaver operated by Alaska’s Enchanted Lake Lodge Inc. and a Bell 206L-4 LongRanger helicopter operated by Maritime Helicopters collided in mid-air over Katmai National Park during Labor Day Weekend. The plane’s pilot and passengers reported no injuries, but the helicopter’s pilot was injured in the crash.

The accident took place at about 4:30 p.m. on Monday, near Lake Coville in a northern area of Katmai National Park and Preserve.

“It was struck in the tail rotor section over there, the back of the helicopter basically was damaged,” said Clint Johnson, the National Transportation Safety Board’s Alaska region chief. “The airplane was able to make an emergency landing in a nearby creek and the helicopter descended uncontrollably into an area of tundra and tree covered terrain.”

The helicopter pilot was able to walk away from the incident, but he was still brought to Anchorage for further medical examination.

Katmai National Park doesn’t have an air traffic control tower to coordinate take-offs and landings. Mark Sturm is the park’s superintendent; he said pilots usually communicate over radios to prevent collisions like this one.

“Pilots that come into the park essentially are in touch with each other and try to manage the traffic locally by talking to each other about how they’re approaching, what they’re doing, and being in contact with planes on the ground,” Sturm said. “But obviously, in this case, these two aircraft were not in communication and the accident happened as a consequence.”

The aircraft were about 1,000 feet above ground when they collided, according to preliminary information. Johnson, with the NTSB, says investigators are still talking to both pilots.

“What we’re trying to do now is trying to figure out how these two airplanes came together – ultimately determine if each one of the pilots were able to see each other and the circumstances that led up to it,” he said.

Johnson says a preliminary report is expected later this month.

In July, a different Bell 206L-4 operated by Maritime Helicopters crashed on the North Slope, killing the pilot and three state scientists.