EADS North America CEO Aboard Plane That Crashed

A congressional source tells Reuters that former Sen. Ted Stevens was aboard a small plane that crashed in Alaska and that Stevens may not have survived.

"Reports are that five of the nine persons on board died in the accident," the National Transportation Safety Board said in a statement.

The Associated Press is citing a government official saying that Alaska authorities believe Stevens was aboard. And a defense contractor source tells the AP that former NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe was also aboard. O'Keefe is now North American CEO for the European aviation and defense giant EADS.

The plane crashed in southwest Alaska and rescue crews were trying to reach the wreckage early Tuesday, authorities said.

A doctor is believed to be on the scene, Reuters reported.

An NTSB investigative team has been dispatched from Washington, D.C., and was expected on the ground Tuesday morning.

Alaska National Guard spokesman Maj. Guy Hayes said the Guard was called to the area about 20 miles north of Dillingham at about 7 p.m. Monday after a passing aircraft saw the downed plane. But severe weather has hampered search and rescue efforts.

Friends of Stevens told the Anchorage Daily News that he was traveling to a lodge owned by the Anchorage-based communications company, CGI, to which the plane was registered.

"A woman who answered the phone at the Anchorage home of retired Air Force Gen. Joe Ralston, a good friend of Stevens, said Ralston was with Stevens' wife, Catherine, comforting her and trying to find out what was going on," the newspaper reported.

Stevens, 86, was defeated in 2008 after facing criminal and Senate ethics charges for not reporting gifts. He was the longest serving Republican senator in U.S. history.

The criminal charges were dropped because of prosecutorial misconduct.

Hayes said about five good Samaritans were on scene early Tuesday helping the crash victims. He said he was told by Alaska State Troopers that there were "eight or nine" people on board, though a spokeswoman for the troopers, Megan Peters, refused to comment.

She said all the agency could say for sure is that a plane went down and crews were "aggressively" trying to reach the crash site but having difficulty doing so. As of 4 a.m. Tuesday, she said she still hadn't received word that crews had reached the site.

"I can't go beyond, 'We're responding to a plane crash,"' she said.

The National Weather Service reported rain and fog at Dillingham, with low clouds and limited visibility early Tuesday.

Conditions ranged from visibility of about 10 miles reported at Dillingham shortly before 7 p.m. Monday to 3 miles, with rain and fog, reported about an hour later, according to the agency.

The aircraft is a 1957 DeHavilland DHC-3 Otter. A woman at the Regional Operations Center told The Associated Press all further information was pending notification of next of kin.

Dillingham is located in northern Bristol Bay, about 325 miles southwest of Anchorage