Anchorage pilot dies in seaplane crash at sea near Big Lake

Updated: 5 Hours ago Published: 12 Hours ago

PALMER — An Anchorage pilot was killed Friday evening after a seaplane crashed into a lake about 10 miles west of Big Lake, authorities said.

The pilot's wife was a passenger on the plane and was injured but was able to swim to shore and get help after the plane crashed in Butterfly Lake, Alaska State Troopers said in an online report posted Saturday morning. The emergency call center received a report of the accident on Friday around 7 p.m.

The woman “reported that her husband was the pilot and was presumed deceased as he was in the submerged cockpit long after the crash,” cops said. Cops identified the pilot later Saturday as 70-year-old Anchorage resident Paul Spiro.

No one else was on the plane, which could not be immediately located, police said. Search efforts were suspended overnight due to darkness.

Troopers said the woman was transported to the hospital by LifeMed helicopter for treatment of her injuries, which were described as non-life-threatening. The search resumed at 6 a.m. Saturday and the partially submerged plane was spotted by a local at East Butterfly Lake, adjacent to Butterfly Lake, cops said.

A Department of Public Safety helicopter and Alaska Wildlife Troopers “in a floating cub” coordinated with members of the Anchorage-based dive team Saturday to recover the pilot's body, troopers said.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating and the state medical examiner will conduct an autopsy.

Since early September, six plane or helicopter crashes have killed 10 people in Alaska, including two separate crashes in mid-September that killed six people.