In this photo provided by Bill Minnix, rescuers from the Alaska Air National Guard carry one of the plane crash victims to a waiting HC-130 at the McGrath airport in Kuskokwim, Alaska, about 225 miles northwest of Anchorage, on Sunday afternoon, Aug. 14, 2011. Authorities say two people have died in a plane crash in the Alaska wilderness, and four others on board the small aircraft survived. (AP Photo/The Anchorage Daily News, Bill Minnix) MANDATORY CREDIT, THE MAT-SU VALLEY FRONTIERSMAN OUT
In this photo provided by Bill Minnix, rescuers from the Alaska Air National Guard carry one of the plane crash victims to a waiting HC-130 at the McGrath airport in Kuskokwim, Alaska, about 225 miles northwest of Anchorage, on Sunday afternoon, Aug. 14, 2011. Authorities say two people have died in a plane crash in the Alaska wilderness, and four others on board the small aircraft survived. (AP Photo/The Anchorage Daily News, Bill Minnix) MANDATORY CREDIT, THE MAT-SU VALLEY FRONTIERSMAN OUT
An Alaska Air National Guard HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopter lands to transfer plane crash victims to a waiting HC-130 at the McGrath airport on Sunday afternoon, Aug. 14, 2011. Authorities say two people have died in a plane crash in the Alaska wilderness, and four others on board the small aircraft survived. (AP Photo/The Anchorage Daily News, Courtesy Bill Minnix) THE MAT-SU VALLEY FRONTIERSMAN OUT
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) ? The start of the school year in several Alaska communities is on hold after a small plane carrying all three teachers for a tiny village crashed in the wilderness, killing one of the teachers just days before classes were set to begin.
The pilot also died when the single-engine Cessna 207 went down Saturday night as it headed to the Athabascan community of Anvik in western Alaska. Shock and grief rippled through the seven-school Iditarod School District, which covers a region slightly larger than Ohio.
Even though communities are not linked by road, everyone knows practically everyone and many people are related. People travel by river, winter trails or small planes for gatherings. Students sometimes get to know teachers and each other through videoconferencing classes, district workers said.
"It's like one big family. It's like we've lost a family member," school district secretary Helen Mwarey told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Monday from district headquarters in McGrath, 140 miles east of Anvik.
Classes at the seven schools were set to begin Wednesday, but that schedule was canceled after the crash.
District officials and school board members were planning to meet Monday afternoon to decide when the schools would open, district superintendent Karen Ladegard said. She added they likely wouldn't open until next week.
Meanwhile, counselors were flying to Anvik to help people cope with the deaths of veteran Anvik teacher Julia Walker, 52, also known as Julie, and pilot Ernie Chase, 66, who grew up in Anvik, according to Ladegard.
"It's a small district and everyone is connected with each other," she said.
Survivors of the crash are new teachers Don and Rosemarie Evans, both 32, their 10-year-old son, Donny, and 8-year-old daughter, McKenzie. All were being treated for non-life-threatening injuries at Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage.
The family moved to the community of 85 in June to get to know the residents as they prepared to share a teaching position at the 18-student school, Ladegard said.
Walker was a lifelong Anvik resident and a teacher at the village school for nine years. She also had worked as a school secretary and classroom assistant in her 29 years as a district employee, according to Mwarey.
In that time, she also worked as a preschool teacher. Among her young charges in the village were Tanya and Donald Richardson, who are now in their 20s, said their mother, Renee Richardson. She said Walker's death is a great blow to many.
"She was good friend to everyone here in town. All the kids loved her. She was always there for anyone who needed her," Richardson said. "Everyone is just devastated."
Walker and the Evanses were among teachers from the seven schools who spent last week training in McGrath, 225 miles northwest of Anchorage.
The Cessna, operated by Aniak-based Inland Aviation Service, left McGrath on Saturday evening. Later that night, a beacon transmitting a 911 signal was activated, showing the plane 37 miles west of McGrath. The Alaska National Guard's Rescue Coordination Center in Anchorage coordinated the ensuing search, which was hampered by poor weather, Guard officials said.
Searchers on Sunday reached the site of the crash, which is being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board.
NTSB investigator Clint Johnson, also on scene Sunday, said the plane crashed among heavy brush at the steep 1,700-foot level of a 2,000-foot mountain. Plans are under way to hoist the wreckage by helicopter and fly it to McGrath, and likely then to Anchorage, for a better examination, he said.
Until he talks with the survivors, Johnson said, he cannot confirm reports that the plane went down in low visibility. There is no weather monitoring at the site, which he described as very remote and far removed from any road system.
"This is literally in the middle of nowhere," he said.
The deadly crash follows two recent midair collisions in the state, including one that killed an Anchorage family of four.
On July 30, an Anchorage pilot and his family died in a collision between their single-engine plane and another aircraft around Amber Lake near Trapper Creek, 80 miles north of Anchorage. The pilot of the other plane was alone in the aircraft and uninjured.
On July 10, nine people aboard a Piper Navajo and four people in a Cessna 206 were uninjured when the planes collided as they were flying directly toward each other in Lake Clark Pass ? a narrow river valley that runs between Anchorage mountains. Both aircraft had minor damage but were able to land safely in Anchorage.
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