Gene Peltola, Husband Of Mary Peltola, Dies In Plane Crash: Alaska Has Highest Rate Of Crashes In America

GENE PELTOLA ONLY PERSON IN PLANE 

Gene Peltola, at Mary Peltola's Congressional Swearing-In. (Wikipedia) 

This Is The Second Time The Spouse Of An Alaskan Member Of The US. Congress Has Been Killed In A Small Plane Crash 

U.S. Senator Ted Stevens' Wife, Ann, Died In A Crash In 1978 

SEPTEMBER 13, 2023: UPDATE

News reports on September 13th said Gene Peltola was alone on his plane when it crashed. The plane wreck occurred on Tuesday night at 8:45 pm September 12th, near Dillingham. He was reported to have died on September 13th. He was reported to be the sole plane occupant, returning from dropping a hunter off. As of early Wednesday, there are no further details of where or how he died. 

The accident is a reminder that Alaska is the site of many dangerous plane crashes,

 

Eugene Peltola Jr. (also known as Buzzy) died in a plane crash on Wednesday, September 13th. He was the husband of freshman Alaska U.S. Congresswoman Mary Peltola. The office of his wife – Alaska's sole member of the House – has confirmed his death.

There are no details of where or how he died.

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This is the second time the spouse of a U.S. Congressional representative has died in a plane crash. The wife of U.S. Senator Ted Stevens, Ann, was only 49 years old when she was killed with four others in an Anchorage small plane crash. Ted Stevens was on that plane, too, and survived in the 1978 crash at Anchorage International. 

It was a reprieve. Former Senator Ted Stevens then went on to die in another plane crash in August, 2010. He was in an amphibious plane on a fishing trip that crashed into a mountainside near Dillingham. News reports at the time said the DeHavilland DHC-3 was registered to GCI. There were four survivors. 

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Gene Peltola was the Assistant Regional Director at the the Office of Subsistence Management, United States Fish & Wildlife Service. He was former President and CEO at Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation. 

Mary Peltola's marriage to Gene Peltola was her third marriage. Her two previous marriages – to pilot Jonathan Kapsner and to lawyer Joe Nelson – both ended in divorce. 

It is still unknown if the crash involved a small plane and was in Alaska, but an estimated 1 in 78 Alaskans is a "pilot." Air crashes are very common in Alaska. The number of fatal air crashes in Alaska, between 2016 and 2019 hovered between 8 and 12 each year during that period. 

According to a story in Alaska Public Media in 2021, at least 21 people have  died in Ketchikan alone due to small plane crashes between 2015 and 2021. 

The crash is a reminder that even Alaskan members of Congress, along with their spouses, are in serious danger from plane crashes.