Two Cessna single engine float planes collided in mid-air near Trapper Creek, about 85 miles north of Anchorage, Alaska on Saturday. One plane, a Cessna 180, crashed and was engulfed in flames after impact, killing the pilot and 3 passengers.The second, a Cessna 206, which sustained considerable damage was able to make an emergency landing at the Ted Stevens International Airport in Anchorage. The only occupant, pilot Kevin Earp, 56, of Eagle River, a veteran Alaska Airlines captain, was unhurt.
The four victims from the crash site have been unofficially identified as Corey Carlson, 41, his wife and their two children from Anchorage. There was no immediate report on how the collision occurred. Three weeks earlier, on July 10, two planes collided in midair in Lake Clark Pass, Alaska. The nine people aboard a Piper Navajo and four people in a Cessna 206 were uninjured. Both aircraft had minor damage but were able to land safely in Anchorage, with FAA spokesman Mike Fergus then describing the incident as “almost unheard of.”