The former Senator from Alaska was one of five killed in the crash of a small plane on which were nine people. Former NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe is among those who may or may not have. NPR is reporting this.
Earlier in his career, Stevens was an AGW denialist, but later got on board and began to support legislation to curb human impacts on climate. Then, later, he became a "The glacier is coming anyway" denialist, but mostly slipped into incoherent babbling when it came to climate change.
The crash apparently happened yesterday, and for some time today reports as to whether or not Stevens was killed in the crash were conflicting.
The crash occurred near Dillington, Alaska.
Stevens was the longest serving Republican Senator and is famous for his "Bridge to Nowhere" and his characterization of The Internet as "A series of tubes."
He was defeated in 2008 by Democrat Mark Begich following his conviction on corruption charges. This was Steven's second plane crash. His first was at Anchorage International Airport (later renamed "Ted Stevens Airport") in 1978. His first wife was killed in that crash.
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The internet tubes will miss him.
Indeed: http://tinyurl.com/z62ml
As a former Alaskan I had no love for Ted Stevens. However, I feel for his older kids. Their mother, Ann was killed in a plane crash in 1978. I remember hearing the explosion from my house and looking at the glow on the horizon wondering, "what was that?"
Since so much travel is done by small plane in Alaska, there are several fatal crashes each year. Alaska's laughable excuse for a Representative, Don Young was elected in a special election after being beaten by a dead man, Nick Beigich Sr., whose plane disappeared in southeastern Alaska. Beigich's son Nick Beigich, Jr. defeated Ted Stevens two years ago. Also on the plane with Nick Sr. was Speaker of the House Hale Boggs, the father of Cokie Roberts. Their plane has never been found. Will Rogers and Wiley Post were also killed in a plane crash in Alaska. It's just that kind of place.
Oops. Change Nick Jr. to Mark. Nick Jr. went to high school with my first wife and has since become something of a conspiracy nut. Mark became mayor of Anchorage before being elected Senator.
Hey, did you ever know my cousin
Archbishop Ryan?
Nor did I. I just finished writing down my totally tubular last sentiments about him on my blog. I guess I was always more upset with the people that kept him in office so damn long because the guy was such a joke.
> http://tinyurl.com/z62ml
Geeze, someone didn't even wait for the body to cool before editing that wikipedia entry to say "the late Ted Stevens".
It looks like O'Keefe and his son survived.
Ted Stevens was also on that plane.
I guess he's on the Plane to Nowhere?
If the plane turns out to have been overloaded, I'm going to have to laugh.
They put too much stuff on the tube, you see. x.x
so much travel is done by small plane in Alaska
There are two reasons for this: distances are vast (the state spans more than 2000 miles E-W and more than 1000 miles N-S), and many areas of the state (including the capital, Juneau) are not connected to the road network.
Apparently this plane was chartered to bring guests to a lodge somewhere near Dillingham, which is in the southwestern part of the state. They would have flown directly to the lodge rather than using Dillingham's commercial airport because you can't drive to that lodge, even from Dillingham, which is one of the areas not linked to the road network (almost all areas west of the Anchorage-Mt. Denali-Fairbanks-Deadhorse corridor are not accessible by road).