Asia-Pacific

Ex-Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens dies in plane crash

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-08-11 03:00

Alaska Republican Senator Ted Stevens arrives at the US District Court with his daughter Beth at his side in Washington in this file image from October 22, 2008. [Agencies]

WASHINGTON - Former US Senator Ted Stevens died in a small plane crash in his home state of Alaska, a family spokesman said on Tuesday.

"The family has been notified that Senator Stevens did not survive the crash," family spokesman Mitch Rose said.

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The chief executive of aircraft maker EADS' North American unit, Sean O'Keefe, a former Stevens aide and onetime NASA administrator, also was on the plane that went down near Bristol Bay on Monday night, but his fate was not immediately known.

Stevens, 86, the gruff, hard-charging Alaskan who rose to become chairman of the powerful US Senate Appropriations Committee, also was the longest-serving Republican member of the US Senate when he lost a 2008 re-election bid amid an ethics scandal.