American Flight Accident killed Former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens | Ted Stevens No More | American Flight Crash Today On August 11th
August 11, 2010 – 12:38 pmAmerican Flight Accident killed Former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens | Ted Stevens No More | American Flight Crash Today On August 11th
The American senator, Ted Stevens – who was renowned for directing hundreds of millions of dollars in worthless projects to his home state of Alaska until he was convicted of corruption and thrown out of office – has been killed in a plane crash.
Stevens, who survived a similar crash in Alaska in 1978 that killed his wife, was on a junket to a fishing lodge courtesy of a telecommunications company when the aircraft came down in bad weather in a remote part of the state.
Five of the nine people on board the singled engine plane are believed to have died. Some of the survivors were reported to have struggled with serious injuries through the night until help arrived.
Among the survivors was former head of Nasa and the North American chief executive of the European aerospace firm and defence contractor, EADS, Sean O’Keefe, and his teenage son. Officials said O’Keefe was badly injured and was one of three passengers flown to a hospital in Anchorage.
The plane went down at about 8pm Alaska time on Monday near Lake Aleknagik, about 320 miles southwest of Anchorage. It was spotted by another aircraft but the Alaska air national guard and US coastguard only reached the site 12 hours later as fog and rain had reduced visibility to just a few hundred yards.
Stevens, 86, who served in the Senate for 41 years – longer than any other Republican – was flying to a fishing lodge near Lake Aleknagik. The plane and the lodge are owned by an Alaskan telecommunications firm, GCI.
Stevens and O’Keefe were close friends who were described as “fishing buddies”.
The former senator was renowned in Alaska for his ability to direct hundreds of millions of dollars in federal government funds to the oil-rich state with a small population. He was affectionately known as Uncle Ted and in 2000 was named “Alaskan of the Century” by the state legislature. The state’s main airport, in Anchorage, was named after Stevens.
One of his projects became known as the “Bridge to Nowhere” after it was revealed he had ensured Congress directed $450m for the construction of a bridge in Ketchikan that was of little discernible use other than to link a small island of about 50 people to the mainland.
Alaska’s governor, Sean Parnell, yesterday paid homage to Stevens.(More:bharatlines.com)
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