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 Eight passengers and the pilot were killed when the plane went
down during a tour of the Misty Fjords area of southeast Alaska on
Thursday afternoon, flight operator Promech Air said in a statement.
"There is nothing I can say that can alleviate the pain and
overwhelming sense of loss," said Marcus Sessoms, president of
Promech Air.
None of those aboard the crashed single-engine aircraft was
identified, pending notification of their families, Promech added.
"It was a bad crash site," volunteer rescue worker Chris John told
the Alaska Dispatch News, adding that the weather in the area at the
time was windy and turbulent.
The small float plane crashed near Ella Lake, about 20 miles (30 km)
northeast of the town of Ketchikan, cruise operator Holland America
Line said.
 Conditions at the nearby Ketchikan International Airport were
overcast and rainy around the time of the crash, the National
Weather Service said.
Ketchikan is a popular summertime cruise destination about 230 miles
(370 km) south of Juneau, the state capital.
A helicopter pilot spotted the downed plane against a granite rock
face about 800 feet (240 m) above Ella Lake in the Misty Fjords,
according to an Alaska State Trooper report.
Due to bad weather, efforts to retrieve bodies will begin on Friday,
a state trooper said.
The cause of the crash was not immediately known. The National
Transportation Safety Board said it was sending a team to
investigate. The aircraft was a DeHavilland DHC-3 Otter, one of five
operated by Promech.
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The excursion flight was sold through Holland America Line, a unit
of Carnival Corp.
The eight passengers had been on the cruise ship Westerdam, which
left Seattle on Saturday for a seven-day round trip, the cruise line
said in a statement.
Promech's sightseeing flights around the Misty Fjords National
Monument offer views of "towering granite cliffs, 1,000-foot
waterfalls, lush and remote valleys and serene crystalline lakes,"
the company says on its website.
In July 2013, four people on board a similar float plane owned by
Promech were injured after the craft suffered engine failure and
crashed into trees on nearby Prince of Wales Island, the Alaska
Dispatch News reported.
(Reporting by Ian Simpson in Washington and Steve Quinn in Juneau;
Additional reporting by Curtis Skinner; Editing by Eric Beech and
Clarence Fernandez)
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