All Four Aboard Killed as Small Plane Crashes Into Water Near Seldovia, Alaska

A small plane carrying four people crashed into shallow tidal water beside the airport in Seldovia, a remote Kenai Peninsula community reachable only by air or sea, on the afternoon of Wednesday, August 26, 2026, killing everyone aboard, Alaska officials said. The Piper PA-24 was flying from Anchorage to Seldovia's airport when it went down and was submerged in the Seldovia Slough; troopers recovered the bodies of the four adults after tide conditions allowed access to the wreckage. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating. The crash comes six days after a separate charter flight crashed near a remote Air Force radar station in southwestern Alaska, killing all eight people aboard; a fourth victim of that crash was identified on August 26, with four still unnamed. The two events are not known to be connected.

What Happened

According to a statement from the Alaska Department of Public Safety, the Piper PA-24 had taken off from Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport and was heading for the airport in Seldovia, about 136 miles southwest of Anchorage, when it crashed shortly after 2:45 p.m. local time on Wednesday. NTSB Alaska region chief Clint Johnson said the aircraft came to rest submerged in about 15 feet of water in the Seldovia Slough, a shallow lagoon near the shoreline.

Alaska State Troopers reached the scene by about 4:30 p.m. but could not immediately reach the submerged wreckage and had to wait for the tide to recede. Once the water receded, troopers recovered the bodies of all four adults who had been aboard. Seldovia City Manager Heidi Geagel, who was at the scene, corroborated the crash location to local media. The cause of the crash has not been determined and remains under NTSB investigation.

NTSB is investigating the Aug. 26 crash of a Piper PA-24-260 airplane near Seldovia, Alaska.
— NTSB Newsroom (@NTSB_Newsroom) August 27, 2026

A Second Crash in Six Days

The Seldovia incident follows, by less than a week, a considerably deadlier crash roughly 450 to 460 miles to the west. On August 20, a twin-engine turboprop Cessna 441 Conquest II, operated by the Anchorage charter company Security Aviation and chartered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, crashed near the Cape Newenham Long Range Radar Site Airport on the Bering Sea coast, killing all eight people on board. NTSB Alaska region chief Clint Johnson said the flight departed Anchorage at approximately 9:15 a.m. and crashed around 11:45 a.m., after the two-pilot crew, navigating solely by instruments in low visibility, aborted a first landing attempt and crashed on a second approach roughly a quarter-mile from the runway. Investigators have not disclosed a precise cloud-ceiling figure.

The victims included two Anchorage-based pilots, two Army Corps of Engineers civilian employees, and four contractors traveling in support of a site visit to inspect and maintain a fire-suppression system at the radar facility. Officials have identified four of the eight as of August 26: Air Force 2nd Lt. Leah R. Borsich, 23, a project programmer with the 611th Civil Engineer Squadron at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson; Army Corps employees Sabrina Hansen, a fire protection engineer, and Hayden Scalis, a mechanical engineer, both of Anchorage; and Trevor McWilliams, an engineer with Yukon Fire Protection Services, one of the four contractors on board, whose identification was announced by his employer and confirmed in state media reporting. The remaining four victims had not been publicly identified as of this writing; the Alaska Department of Public Safety has said it is working to positively identify remains through DNA testing and dental records. A multi-member NTSB investigation team has been documenting the wreckage field at the accident site; the agency has not stated when a preliminary report will be released.

Cape Newenham and Seldovia differ in operator, aircraft type and apparent circumstance, and officials have drawn no connection between them beyond timing.

A Documented, Longstanding Safety Gap

Alaska's elevated aviation-accident rate is not a new or impressionistic observation; it is documented in federal data. A February 2020 NTSB safety recommendation report (ASR-20-02) found that from 2008 to 2017, Alaska's total aviation accident rate was 2.35 times higher than the rest of the United States, and its fatal accident rate was 1.34 times higher. Then-NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt called the disparity “unacceptable” and urged the FAA to address it comprehensively. That finding led to the FAA's Alaska Aviation Safety Initiative, later renamed the Don Young Alaska Aviation Safety Initiative, which Congress has funded at $25 million annually through 2028 for weather-reporting infrastructure, navigation upgrades and other safety investments.

Researchers and the NTSB attribute the disparity to a combination of factors rather than any single cause: only a small share of Alaska communities are connected by road, making small aircraft an everyday necessity rather than a recreational activity; the state has a much higher rate of certified pilots relative to its population than the rest of the country; and mountainous terrain, rapidly shifting coastal weather, and gaps in weather-reporting infrastructure in remote areas have historically contributed to controlled-flight-into-terrain accidents, among the leading causes of fatal crashes identified in FAA and NTSB reviews. A separate analysis by the public radio station KUCB and the investigative newsroom ProPublica found that Alaska's share of the nation's fatal small commercial aircraft crashes has grown even as the national toll has fallen; the state accounted for 42 percent of such U.S. deaths in recent years, up from about 26 percent in the early 2000s.

This background helps explain why Alaska records crashes at a higher rate than other states. It does not establish the cause of either the Seldovia or Cape Newenham crash, both of which remain under active investigation.

Possible Causes Remain Undetermined

No cause has been determined for either crash. For Cape Newenham, the flight attempted a first approach that ended in a missed approach, then crashed during a second attempt while the crew was navigating solely by instruments in conditions poor enough that they could not see the ground; investigators have not yet said why the second attempt failed, and mechanical, procedural and environmental explanations all remain possible pending the NTSB's fuller investigation. For Seldovia, officials have said the aircraft was flying from Anchorage toward Seldovia's airport when it crashed; the NTSB has not indicated a cause.

It is possible, but currently unsupported by any released evidence, that the two crashes share a common contributing factor. The aircraft, operators, routes and circumstances differ in what is known so far, and officials have identified no link.

The Agencies and People Involved

National Transportation Safety Board: The lead federal investigator for both crashes, responsible for determining probable cause and issuing safety recommendations. Its Alaska regional office, headed by Clint Johnson, has briefed reporters on both incidents.

Federal Aviation Administration: Regulates and certifies U.S. civil aviation and assists the NTSB with technical investigation; it provided initial flight and aircraft information about the Cape Newenham crash to news organizations while the NTSB leads the probable-cause investigation.

Alaska State Troopers / Department of Public Safety: The primary state law-enforcement responder at both crash sites, responsible for scene security, victim identification and next-of-kin notification.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Alaska District: Chartered the Cape Newenham flight and has publicly identified its two employees killed in that crash.

Alaskan Command: Oversees the Alaska Rescue Coordination Center, which directed the search-and-rescue response to the Cape Newenham crash, and issued public statements on the incident.

Eleventh Air Force: The Air Force major command in Alaska; publicly identified 2nd Lt. Leah R. Borsich as the Air Force member killed in the Cape Newenham crash. The radar site itself is managed by the Pacific Air Forces Regional Support Center.

City of Seldovia: Local officials, including City Manager Heidi Geagel, provided the initial on-the-ground confirmation of the crash location pending fuller state and federal statements.

Why This Story Matters

Seldovia has no road connection to the rest of Alaska and depends on small aircraft and boats for essential travel, so any disruption to local air service carries practical weight for residents beyond the immediate accident. The Cape Newenham flight, separately, was carrying out a planned site visit tied to a radar installation that supports Alaska's air-defense mission, and its loss has drawn statements from the state's congressional delegation and military leadership. Both crashes sit within a documented, federally studied pattern of elevated aviation risk in Alaska, discussed above, though neither crash's cause has yet been tied to that broader pattern by investigators.

What Investigators Will Likely Address Next

For Seldovia, the NTSB will now investigate the cause of the crash following recovery of the victims and the wreckage. For Cape Newenham, the NTSB's on-site team continues documenting the wreckage field; the agency has not given a timeline for a preliminary report, and final determination of probable cause in NTSB investigations of this kind has historically taken months.

Alaska's Broader Aviation Safety Debate

The pattern documented in the NTSB's 2020 safety recommendation, and reflected in the FAA's ongoing Alaska Aviation Safety Initiative funding, means questions about weather-reporting infrastructure, remote-airstrip conditions and charter-operator oversight are likely to recur in public discussion regardless of what investigators ultimately find in these two specific cases.

Conclusion

All four people aboard the Seldovia flight were killed, and investigators have not determined a cause for either that crash or the fatal Cape Newenham crash six days earlier, in which four of eight victims have now been publicly identified. Both investigations are in early stages. This article will be updated as the NTSB, Alaska State Troopers and other officials release further information.