A former mayor of Bethel, Alaska, Eric Middlebrook, 68, has died along with three relatives from California after the small plane he was piloting crashed into a slough near the coastal town of Seldovia. The crash has drawn tributes from local officials and Alaska's US senator, highlighting both the risks of small aircraft travel in remote Alaska and Middlebrook's standing as a respected community figure who served as mayor and ran a commercial refrigeration business, flying to villages across the region to service equipment.

The Piper PA-24 went down in the Seldovia Slough, roughly 136 miles south-west of Anchorage, at about 1.15pm on Wednesday shortly after departing Merrill Field Airport in Anchorage, leaving the aircraft submerged in around 15 feet of near-freezing water. The other victims, all related to Middlebrook, were named as Daniel Simons, 82, and brothers Ronald Schmidt, 65, and Lance Schmidt, 20, all from the San Jose/Los Gatos area of California. Alaska State Troopers recovered the four bodies once the tide dropped that evening, and the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the cause while the state medical examiner carries out autopsies.