On August 9, 2010, a privately operated de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter floatplane crashed on a mountainside near Aleknagik, Alaska, killing five of the nine people aboard, including former U.S. Senator Ted Stevens. The flight, traveling between two fishing lodges, also claimed the lives of a GCI executive and her 16-year-old daughter, while survivors included former NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe, his son, and future NASA Deputy Administrator James Morhard. The crash occurred under "very bad" weather conditions with visibility under one mile, and the wreckage was only located after an aerial search. Rescue efforts were severely hampered by rain and fog, but helicopters from the Alaska Air National Guard and U.S. Coast Guard eventually hoisted survivors to safety and transported them to Anchorage for medical care. Investigators later discovered that the aircraft's emergency locator transmitter antenna had been disabled on impact, and a functional satellite phone on board went unused for hours because passengers didn't know it was there. The tragedy highlighted the dangers of remote Alaskan aviation and the critical role of coordinated search-and-rescue operations in extreme conditions.