more for his state than any other state did for any other state. no question. one of the things that is estimated that he brought $3.2 billion in earmarks to the state of alaska, just alaska. it is a remarkable legacy. you go to that state, and the first thing you see when you get off of the plane in anchorage is that the airport is named after him. people loved ted stevens and i can tell you, but for that justice department case that went down so terribly to everybody s detriment, ted stevens would probably still be in the senate right now. i think that you are probably right. thanks for that. joe johns covered ted stevens in the u.s. senate. now, more on sean o keefe who we know survived the crash with his son kevin. he is the ceo of the north american branch of aideads, a
the ceilings of the cloud cover was 1,000 feet. so this plane was very close to the bottom of the cloud cover because of the lifting condensation level and as it flew from lake nerka to dillingham, and possibly making a stop. we don t know where this plane was going there. is no flight plan. doesn t have to be a flight plan, because it is a dfr, and visual flight rules, and they have been there hundreds of times and planes like this take uf and land thousands of times a day in alaska, but yesterday was tough. at 7:30 at night, the sunset did not happen until 10:30 at night,
the senators, and let them sort of look you over. and he was one of the few that actually took the time to speak with me. and he is a very, very knowledgeable aviation person. and particularly knowledgeable about the high risk that is involved in flying in alaska. as you may know, he was in an accident in anchorage at a a light jet accident. and he survived, but his first wife was killed in that accident. and, of course, the other man that we know is on that plane, sean o keefe. obviously, he worked for aerospace and defense company. these are guys who know a lot about aviation, but they were on a small plane, a dhc-3 ht, a single engine, we can show it on the screen here. bob, this is a common plane used by bush pilots. there are lots of them. it s a common way to get around in alaska.
charlie rangel not like the fact he was getting tied something he thought what he was doing frankly was not nearly as serious as the accusation against maxine sfwhaurs. good point. chuck todd, thank you so much. thanks, luke russert. now we move on to very troubling you and sad news. the alaska national guard now on the scene of that plane crash, 17 miles north of dillingham, alaska, a remote fishing area on alaska s southern coast there are reports of four survivors being treated among the nine on that plane, it was a private plane, privately owned dehavilland dhc-3t, commonly known as an the other, reportedly ferrying passengers from fishing camp notice area in bad visibility early last evening. we now know the passengers did include former senator ted stevens who was defeated in 2008 after being the longest-serving republican in the senate. and also aviation executive sean o keefe, a former nasa administrator, former secretary
was flying from lake nerka to go to a fishing camp on the nushagak river. it took off at around 2:00 p.m. in the afternoon. radio contact was lost. an alert was put out, asking other aviators to keep an eye out and at 7:00 the wreckage was spotted north of dillingham. it s in a mountainous area on a 40-degree slope. the rescue was so difficult they weren t able to reach the location until this morning. even then it was challenging. the weather conditions when they landed was about a quarter mile visibility. we ve had a lot of wind, a lot of low cloud cover. so it s been pretty difficult to get into the area. it took them roughly about 12 hours from i think when the plane was spotted by good samaritans until we got there on scene. they have dispatched a team to investigate the cause of the crash and is scheduled to hold a press conference this evening.