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A 28-year-old Palmer woman died Tuesday after the Cessna 206 she was flying crashed on the Porcupine River, authorities say.
Alaska State Troopers on Wednesday identified the pilot as Hannah Dollick and said she was found dead inside the partially submerged plane. Troopers described the crash site as northwest of the village of Chalkyitsik, which is about 50 miles east of Fort Yukon.
Tuesday’s crash was the ninth fatal plane or helicopter crash in Alaska this year and the fifth in September alone.
A National Transportation Safety Board investigator was en route to the Porcupine River crash site Wednesday, according to Clint Johnson, the agency’s Alaska chief. Bad weather was hampering efforts to get to the scene, he said.
Johnson said there was no indication what caused the crash, which occurred after the plane took off from a remote site next to the river.
The plane is registered to Kavik Aviation Services, according to a Federal Aviation Administration database. The Palmer-based company provides services including on-demand charters for bear viewing, remote fuel deliver and fishing, hunting or gear drop-offs, according to its website.
Kavik shares ownership with Blue River Aviation, another Palmer business that offers charters and rentals as well as flight instruction.
“It is with heavy hearts that we learned today of the passing of our teammate, friend, and fellow pilot, Hannah Dollick, in an airplane accident in Northern Alaska,” Blue River said Wednesday in a statement posted to Facebook. “Blue River Aviation extends our deepest condolences to Hannah’s loved ones, and we are doing everything we can to support her family and our team during this difficult time.”
Nine people, including Dollick, have been killed in crashes just this month, some of them associated with hunting trips that are common in September.
Four men on a moose hunting trip died in a plane crash about a half-mile from the runway in St. Mary’s on Sept. 15. A 71-year-old Anchorage man died on Sept. 14 when his modified experimental plane crashed on a road near Wasilla. Two men died Sept. 13 in a crash on the Kenai Peninsula near Tustumena Lake. And a Louisiana man died near King Salmon on Sept. 7 in the crash of a helicopter carrying five people on a fishing trip.