ASSEMBLY TOPIC – Tourists fill Lincoln Street near the Lake Street intersection Monday afternoon. The Assembly will review the recommendations of the tourism task force at the regular meeting tonight at Harrigan Centennial Hall. They will consider “flattening the curve” on cruise ship tourism growth, regulations for ebikes, and creating a best-management practices program among other item in an action plan. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Sports Editor
Scores of Sitka runners turned out in unanticipated f [ ... ]
By Sentinel Staff
The body of the missing Ketchikan woman Christiana Watt was recovered Monday [ ... ]
By NATHANIEL HERZ
Northern Journal
HOMER — On a brilliant spring morning, Buck Laukitis, a lo [ ... ]
By JAMES BROOKS
Alaska Beacon
Members of the Alaska Legislature questioned the direction of the [ ... ]
Police Blotter
Sitka police received the following calls by 8 a.m. today:
June 24
At 10:29 a.m. a calle [ ... ]
Pride Month
Comedy Shows
Set for Saturday
Sitka Pride will hold its final Pride Month event – two co [ ... ]
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
“Flattening the curve” on cruise ship tourism gro [ ... ]
By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
Staffing cuts in the newest School District budget tha [ ... ]
By CLAIRE STREMPLE
Alaska Beacon
State officials have alerted foster parents that Alaska health [ ... ]
By JAMES BROOKS
Alaska Beacon
The leader of the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority, one of th [ ... ]
By YERETH ROSEN
Alaska Beacon
The federal government is sending nearly $12 million to Alaska to [ ... ]
Sitka police received the following calls by 8 a.m. today:
June 21
At 12:33 a.m. two people standing t [ ... ]
Segregation Talk at
Methodist Church
The public is invited to a talk by Rev. Dr. John Allen Boryk 5 [ ... ]
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
Following the spectacular success of last year’s Ja [ ... ]
By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
In a new stage of a years-long project to better under [ ... ]
By YERETH ROSEN
Alaska Beacon
National parks located along Alaska’s coast might clear away so [ ... ]
By CLAIRE STREMPLE
Alaska Beacon
After years of backlogged applications kept thousands of Alask [ ... ]
Sitka Fine Arts Camp middle school students make music in Flute Technique class taught by recent O [ ... ]
Sitka police received the following calls by 8 a.m. today:
June 20
At 12:56 a.m. callers on Darrin Dri [ ... ]
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
Advocates for limits on cruise ship visitors to Sitka [ ... ]
By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
Cleanup efforts wrapped up over the weekend at the sit [ ... ]
By JAMES BROOKS
Alaska Beacon
On Friday, supporters of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. turned in more tha [ ... ]
By JAMES BROOKS
Alaska Beacon
This month, hundreds of Tlingit, Tsimshian and Haida tribal membe [ ... ]
Life Celebration
For Binghams
Set for June 24
A celebration of life service for Jay Lynn Bingham and Es [ ... ]
Daily Sitka Sentinel
Midair Plane Collision Kills 7 Near Soldotna
By MORGAN KRAKOW
Anchorage Daily News
Investigators are trying to figure out what exactly occurred when two planes collided in midair near the Soldotna airport on the Kenai Peninsula on Friday, killing seven people including a Kenai lawmaker.
The single-engine de Havilland DHC-2 Beaver involved in the crash carried six people: 57-year-old pilot Gregory Bell, of Soldotna; 40-year-old guide David Rogers, of Kansas; and South Carolina residents Caleb Hulsey, 26, Heather Hulsey, 25, Mackay Hulsey, 24, and Kirstin Wright, 23, Alaska State Troopers said.
The only person in the other plane, a single-engine Piper PA-12, was 63-year-old state Rep. Gary Knopp of Kenai, troopers and federal aviation officials said.
Six people were confirmed dead at the scene while one person died on the way to Central Peninsula Hospital in an ambulance.
The federal National Transportation Safety Board was recovering the two planes, NTSB Alaska chief Clint Johnson said Saturday. The agency hoped to be finished with recovery efforts by the end of Saturday, and the goal is to bring the two planes to a secured location in the Wasilla area, Johnson said.
In the next two weeks the agency hopes to “be able to piece those airplanes back together” to understand how the two planes came together, Johnson said.
He also said it’s “way too early to discuss cause at this point. We are definitely just in the preliminary stages and information gathering stages.”
Bell, the Beaver’s pilot, was part of a family that owns and operates High Adventure Air Charter, based on Longmere Lake in Soldotna. The business offers fishing, hunting, bear viewing and glacier tour trips as well as custom charters.
The charter plane, which was equipped with floats, took off from Longmere Lake and was headed to the west side of Cook Inlet, Johnson said.
The Piper PA-12 was equipped with wheels and took off from the Soldotna Airport, he said, but investigators do not yet know where it was headed.
How exactly the two planes collided is what investigators are trying to learn.
Knopp, a longtime contractor who was also a flight instructor and pilot, was elected to the Legislature in 2016. Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Friday ordered U.S. and Alaska state flags to be flown at half-staff in honor of Knopp for three days, ending at sunset Monday, with flags returning to full-staff at sunrise tonight.
A South Carolina television station reported that Caleb and Mackay Hulsey were brothers. Heather Hulsey was married to Caleb, the station reported. Mackay and Kirstin Wright were planning to marry and had been dating since 2011.
----
Daily News reporters Zaz Hollander, James Brooks and Paula Dobbyn contributed.
Login Form
20 YEARS AGO
June 2004
Photo caption: Doug Jay, president of Swiftsure Foods, and John Upcraft, plant manager of AQE, stand together at the newly opened seafood process plant at the Sawmill Cove Industrial Park.
50 YEARS AGO
June 1974
KIFW TV Saturday: 11 a.m. Scooby Doo; noon My Favorite Martian; 12:20 Jeannie; 1 p.m. Speed Buggy; 1:30 p.m. Josie & the Pussycats; 2 p.m. Pebbles & Bam Bam; 2:30 Fat Albert; 3 p.m. Sportsman; 3:30 Wide World of Sports; 5 p.m. Movie “Hello Down There” 7 p.m. Mary Tyler Moore; 7:30 Bob Newhart; 8 p.m. All in the Family; 8:30 MASH; 9 p.m. Carol Burnett; 10 p.m. Owen Marshall;11 p.m. Movie “Asylum.”