Alaska State Troopers received notification of an aircraft crash in the Matanuska River near mile 77 of the Glenn Highway at just before 1 pm on Thursday afternoon and together with Alaska Wildlife Troopers responded to the scene.

The aircraft was found in a portion of the river only accessible by boat and so the Matanuska Dive Team responded, launched a boat and accessed the wreckage. The team would find that the pilot and sole occupants was deceased inside the aircraft.

The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration were contacted and advised of the crash. NTSB arrived on the scene shortly after.

MTR Towing was called in to retrieve the wreckage from the river and with the assistance of the dive team, the pilot’s remains were recovered from the wreckage. After the remains were recovered, they were turned over to a local funeral home’s vehicle.

The investigation that ensued found that another aircraft was traveling with the victim’s aircraft and they reported that the aircraft struck a cable causing the aircraft to crash.

Troopers say next of kin notifications are underway.

  aircraft, Alaska, crash, fatality, investigation, matanuska river