dealing with in the area where we speak. jon: but let me hear you correctly, you believe some of the victims that survived are already on the c-130? we believe that any minute the survivors will get on to the helicopters and be taken out of the crash site. that could happen any minute and we re told those people will be flown to anchorage. we ll start to find out what we can on what the condition of the survivors are. jon: when you take a look at that picture, any pilot that sees those clouds, you ve got the slate gray clouds hanging low and all of that water on the tarmac there, that s not necessarily good weather for flying. reporter: right, and this is actually the dillingham airport, a very small airport. this is where a lot of the rescue flights are taking off from and landing. jon: and typically the airports are going to be in a lower location where they ve got flat ground, obviously, enough to put a runway. the place where the plane crashed could be much minister mountainous
we continue following the story out of southwest alaska. a private plane crashed in the middle of the night in a remote area near dillingham. reports indicate eight or nine people were on board. the number changes, according to the reporting that we re getting here. five are reported dead, two seriously injured. among the passengers, a former head of nasa, sean o keefe. his condition, still unknown. also possibly on board, former senator ted stevens. family members have issued a statement offering their prayers for the crash victims and thanking the search and rescue teams. okay. you ve got questions about your money. as we move to some other news on the day. we all have questions about our money.
boy, we are really hustling to get you the latest information on this tragic plane crash in alaska. rescue teams are on the ground now of a small plane crash in southwest alaska. the plane crashed overnight in a remote area, very near dillingham, alaska. we are being told that at least nine people were on board the plane, five people are reported dead. two others seriously injured. former nasa chief sean o keefe was on board. we don t know his condition. still unclear at this time whether former senator ted stevens was on board. a former spokesman for the family, mitch rose, in a statement that he read on our air earlier this hour says that the stevens family is in touch with the search and rescue effort, and the family is asking for your prayers. let s get to john zarrella standing by for us. and john, i asked you a little earlier in the hour, and i know kyra talked to you about it last hour. we re just trying to sort of
would not deny the reporting so far that suggests that the former senator was, in fact, on that plane. we do know that the former nasa administrator sean o keefe was market on that plane that went down in the overnight hours in dillingham, alaska. john zarrellas that a bit more background on sean o keefe. reporter: yeah, as i was saying earlier, he was very, very pragmatic but very, very eloquent and for the four years that he ran nasa, that was his focus and that was his life, and, in fact, someone that i know at the space agency, i had asked that person, well, how do you remember sean from the days that that you worked with administrator o keefe, and i got this e-mail back, and it says, he was direct and focused on space exploration. he made the hard zigs to initiate better management of
first, the ntsb does have a regional office in alaska. the role that aviation plays in alaska is unique, and the ntsb has had an official there for years. so their local investigators will be first on scene, if possible, accompanying the search and rescue team. from washington, the ntsb will send a full team of investigators, and my understanding is that they are assembled and they re getting ready to go almost immediately. all right, peter, we re going to check back in with you in just a bit as well. i want to get everyone to a break, and as we do, the breaking news at this hour, five of the eight people on board a plane that crashed near dillingham, alaska overnight were killed. our understanding at least at this point, one sustained serious injuries, and the condition of two other people unknown at this time.