Former mayor of Bethel, Alaska, Eric Middlebrook, 68, died in the plane crash, state police said. Three passengers on board also died – the aircraft fell into a swamp in the city of Seldovia.
As Clint Johnson, head of the regional office of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), told the Anchorage Daily News (ADN), Middlebrook himself piloted a light single-engine Piper PA-24 aircraft. He was flying to Seldovia from Anchorage, where US President Donald Trump had a summit with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin a year ago.
Middlebrook made a poor landing approach and hit trees during the go-around attempt. The aircraft crashed into a swamp and sank to a depth of 13 to 17 feet (4 to 5 meters), Johnson said. Later, the police managed to remove all the dead from the plane.
The passengers were California residents Ronald Schmidt, 65, Lance Schmidt, 20, and Daniel Simons, 82. How they were connected to Middlebrook, who recently lived in Anchorage, is not specified.
Eric Middlebrook was an experienced pilot and also the owner of a company that sold refrigerators, writes the Associated Press (AP). Before going into business, he served as a Bethel City Council member and mayor of the city of 6,000 in the 2000s.
UPDATE: Former mayor of Bethel among 4 men killed in Seldovia plane crash ➡ https://t.co/f2U1XtF2oU pic.twitter.com/w8rO1v1rzL
— Alaska's News Source (@AKNewsNow) August 28, 2026
For decades, the ex-mayor flew his plane to villages scattered along the local Kuskokwim River Delta to fix air conditioners and refrigerators, according to a former colleague of the politician, Mark Springer.
The city of Seldovia, where the plane crash occurred, can only be reached by air or by boat, and is located in the bay of the same name. The name comes from the Russian word “herring” – the place was nicknamed so because of the large number of herring. The town of just over 200 people still has an Orthodox church and hosts the Seldovia Summer Solstice music festival every June.
Less than a week before the Seldovia accident, another plane crashed at a remote military base in Alaska, which was used during the Cold War to monitor a possible Soviet attack. Eight people died in the disaster.
