JUNEAU -- The tour plane that crashed Thursday in Misty Fjords National Monument, killing eight passengers and the pilot, was operated by Ketchikan-based Promech Air, a company that bills itself as the largest air taxi operator in the area and an important player in the tour business.
The company flies four Canadian-manufactured de Havilland Beavers, the heavy-duty, six-passenger planes that many people picture when they think of Alaska Bush flying, and five of their larger cousins, 10-passenger de Havilland Otters, according to the the company's website. One of those Otters crashed Thursday.
Promech is affiliated with Waterfall Resort on nearby Prince of Wales Island, which it says is the largest lodge in Alaska, with 92 beds. The resort says it has served 50,000 visitors over the years and it is accessible only by float plane or boat.
The managing member of Promech -- officially PM Air LLC -- is Ken Dole. He's also president and managing partner of the resort. A 2005 news report said Promech provided the 40-minute charter flights to the resort from Ketchikan, though it's not clear whether the company still flies that route.
Dole, reached Friday afternoon, referred a reporter to a spokeswoman, who didn't immediately respond to emailed questions.
Tours of Misty Fjords National Monument represent a big chunk of Promech's business, said Rob Murray, a pilot who flew for the company between 2007 and 2013.
"That's what they really specialize in," Murray said in a phone interview Friday. "That's the only way you can afford to own six Otters, I think -- is by filling them up every day in the summer. Probably 99 percent of my loads were passengers going to Misty Fjords."
While Promech operates the planes, Federal Aviation Administration records show that the company doesn't directly own any aircraft. Some are owned by individual limited-liability companies connected to Promech. In other cases, the planes are leased, as was the case with the Otter involved in the Misty Fjords crash.
That plane was owned by Pantechnicon Aviation of Nevada, an aircraft leasing company, according to FAA records.
Pantechnicon's Jeff Fuller said Friday he believed his company is the owner of the crashed plane but had not confirmed that yet.
"I believe that our company may be," he said. "We're obviously distraught and trying to find out more."
Pantechnicon also leases a second Otter to Promech, an expansion financed by a subsidiary of the Arctic Slope Regional Corp.
Promech also has a sister company in Florida called Key West Seaplane Adventures. The arrangement allows for use of the planes during the winter, since the tourist season in Ketchikan is only a few months long, Hank Myers, a transportation economist who has worked with Promech, said in a phone interview.
Murray, the former Promech pilot, said the airline was a "great company" and "very safety-conscious."
"I didn't feel pressured when I worked for them," he said.
He added that the company's management had changed substantially since he worked there.
Promech's planes have been involved in accidents in the past.
In 2013, a float plane operated by the company crashed near Thorne Bay, about 50 miles northwest of Ketchikan, injuring four.
In 2002, two planes being flown by Promech just north of Ketchikan brushed against each other, though no one was injured.
And in 1997, a 27-year-old Promech pilot was killed in a crash near Ketchikan while returning to the company's float plane base from a city airport dock on his last flight of the day.