Alaska Tourist Helicopter Crashes; 7 Die

A sightseeing helicopter crashed into a glacier Wednesday, killing all seven people aboard.

The helicopter went down with six tourists and a pilot near Herbert Glacier, 20 miles north of the popular tourist destination of Juneau. The cause had yet to be determined.

“It appears as though they flew into the glacier,” said Greg Wilkinson, a spokesman for Alaska State Troopers.

The weather was cloudy in Juneau, and fog was also present. Worsening weather in the afternoon forced the troopers to suspend efforts to recover the bodies.

Tourists frequently hire helicopters to view the area’s spectacular glaciers, forests and fiords, and two cruise ships were docked in Juneau on Wednesday.

Two of the victims were cruise ship passengers from the Sea Princess, docked in Juneau for the day, said Dean Brown, president of Princess Tours. Neither their names nor the names of the other five people aboard were released.

Joette Storm, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration in Anchorage, said the helicopter was an Aerospatiale AS-350BA.

“All you could see was wreckage,” said Pauline Acherman of Santa Monica, who flew over the crash site on a separate helicopter tour.

The National Transportation Safety Board was sending a team of inspectors to investigate.

In a separate accident Wednesday, two people were taken to a hospital after an Era Aviation helicopter crashed on Admiralty Island.

Tourist-related aviation accidents are not uncommon in Alaska during the summer. Last year, a helicopter on a sightseeing trip over Juneau collided in midair with a small plane. One person on board the plane was killed and the helicopter was damaged, but the helicopter passengers escaped serious injury.