Ted Stevens Dies in Plane Crash: Reports

Multiple news outlets are reporting today that Ted Stevens, former Alaska senator, was among the dead in a plane crash near Dillingham, Alaska. The Anchorage Daily News confirms Stevens' death with a family spokesman, updating its story on the crash:

UPDATE: Family spokesman Mitch Rose has confirmed that former Sen. Ted Stevens died in the plane crash. "He did not survive," Rose said

A plane carrying nine people crashed amid Southwest Alaska's remote mountains and lakes, killing five people on board and injuring at least three others, authorities said today. Former Sen. Ted Stevens and ex-NASA chief Sean O'Keefe were believed to be aboard.

Read the full story at The Anchorage Daily News.

Stevens was aboard a small propeller plane owned by IT corporation CGI; former NASA chief Sean O'Keefe was also believed to be on board. After a search and rescue effort that was complicated by bad weather, three survivors were reportedly taken from the crash in helicopters.

The former senator represented Alaska for seven terms in the Senate until 2009. He was revered as a patriarch of Alaska politics; Anchorage Airport was renamed Ted Stevens International Airport in his honor. He nearly won reelection in 2008 despite a federal corruption trial that unfolded during the election but was defeated by Democrat Mark Begich.

Stevens, who often wore ties depicting The Incredible Hulk, survived a plane crash in 1978. Born in 1923, he was 86 at the time of his death.