The four people aboard a de Havilland DHC-2 Beaver survived after their plane reportedly lost power shortly after taking off from a runway at Anchorage's Lake Hood on Sunday evening.
The wheel-equipped plane took off from a gravel strip sometime after 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, said John Parrott, the manager of the Ted Stevens International Airport.
"It crashed in a boggy area north of the runway," he said.
One pilot and three passengers were aboard the aircraft, said Clint Johnson, the head of the National Transportation Safety Board's Anchorage office. Two of the occupants of the private plane reportedly received minor injuries, while the other two were unharmed. The aircraft sustained "substantial damage," Johnson said.
An NTSB investigator was on the scene Sunday evening. The investigation is in its preliminary stages, he said.
Johnson said the pilot reported a loss of engine power, forcing him to put the plane down in the trees. The owner was reportedly going to attempt to recover the aircraft from the crash site in order to return it to the airport.
The wreckage is in a thickly wooded area north of the Lake Hood runway but south of Northern Lights Boulevard, Parrott said.