Alaska News

AK Beat: Minor injuries reported after plane collides with riverboat

Ten people unharmed after plane, fishing boat collide: A collision between a Cessna 207 float plane and a guide fishing boat ended with only minor injuries to three of ten people involved in the accident on the Naknek River in King Salmon. The Cessna was taking off upriver from the boat around noon on Sunday when the collision occurred. "The three occupants of the guide boat were thrown from the vessel and into the river," Alaska State Troopers reported. "The Cessna 207 then flipped upside down in the river with seven people on board." Several other fishing boats in the area witnessed the accident and came to the aid of the passengers, and everyone involved was safely recovered from the river. Three people were taken to Naknek Clinic for evaluations, but all injuries appeared to be minor, troopers reported.

Outside firefighters on their way back home: After nearly a month in the Last Frontier, 40 firefighters from Pennsylvania are on their way back east, according to Penn Live. The personnel had been called in to aid in fighting the 85,475-acre Stuart Creek 2 fire in Interior Alaska, which has held steady at 57 percent contained for the past few days. The fire was sparked June 19 at a military training range about 25 miles outside of North Pole.

When reality is kryptonite: Wasilla man Patrick Campbell, 23, learned the hard way that dressing like Superman doesn't actually make you invincible. Campbell was arrested late Friday evening by Alaska State Troopers after he was found standing in the middle of the Parks Highway in Wasilla, wearing a Superman costume and waving at traffic. Campbell was allegedly found to be in possession of heroin and was arrested for misconducted involving a controlled substance in the fourth degree, troopers report.

(Long) lost and found: A woman born in Skagway, a small town on the Alaska Panhandle that became the first incorporated first-class city in Alaska in 1900, and who had been missing for 52 years turned up alive and well, the Province reported. Lucy Ann Johnson, now 77, was reported missing from her home in Surrey, British Columbia by her husband on May 14, 1965, though a neighbor claims to have last seen Johnson in September of 1961. Local police initially suspected foul play but couldn't find any evidence. After Surrey Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) featured the then-missing woman on its "Missing of the Month" series, her daughter went one step further and, knowing her mother was from Alaska, placed a free advertisement in Yukon News, and on Tuesday, a woman called the police claiming to be Johnson's other daughter. Though the Province reported that Johnson was located in Alaska, Fox News reports that she was living with another family in the Yukon. Police are still investigating why Lucy left her home all those years ago but are overjoyed she's been found, and her family is making arrangements to see her, too.

Big flatfish: An Anchorage woman has caught a monster halibut. Jennifer Davis landed a 376 pound, 88-inch long halibut on July 16, fishing out of Anchor Point with Steve's Saltwater Charters. Her fish would have easily beat the current 198-pound leader of the Homer Jackpot Halibut Derby, but she didn't have a derby ticket, and it wouldn't have mattered anyway. Davis was fishing out of Anchor Point, and to qualify for the derby fishermen (and women) must launch out of Homer. The state and world record for halibut is 459 pounds.

Memorial held for Alaska plane crash victims: The second of two funerals for South Carolina families killed in a plane crash in Soldotna, Alaska earlier this month took place in Greenville, S.C. on Saturday, the Albany Times Union reported. Dr. Chris McManus, his wife Stacey and their children Meghan and Connor were killed in the crash, along with another Greenville family and the pilot of the plane, Willy Rediske of Nikiski. Services for the other family -- husband and wife Milton and Kim Antonakos and their children, Olivia, Mills and Ana -- were held on Wednesday.

Craig Medred

Craig Medred is a former writer for the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Dispatch and Alaska Dispatch News. He left the ADN in 2015.

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