The second midair collision in Alaska in as many months is believed to have killed a young commercial pilot while another managed to land her badly damaged aircraft safely. The Anchorage Daily News reports 24-year-old Scott Veal, of Kenai, is presumed dead after the Grant Aviation Cessna Caravan he was flying was in a collision with a Ryan Air Cessna 207 flown by 26-year-old Kristen Sprague, of Idaho, and crashed Friday near Nightmute on Nelson Island in southwestern Alaska. The pilots were the lone occupants of both aircraft and both were headed to Bethel, about 100 miles east. Weather was reported as overcast with ceilings about 1,000 feet AGL and no fog or rain. Meanwhile, a collision between two sailplanes has killed two Canadian pilots in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia.
The pair apparently launched together Saturday afternoon from Invermere, about 100 miles west of Calgary, and were working the same thermal when the wings of their aircraft touched. Both aircraft went out of control and hit a mountainside. No names have been released but the men, a 50-year-old Calgary resident and a 59-year-old Kelowna, British Columbia native, were described as experienced sailplane pilots who were familiar with the area.
