Two Napa residents among six dead in Alaska plane crash

Two Napa residents have been identified as passengers on a plane crash that killed everyone on board Thursday in Alaska.

Mark Henderson, 69, and Jacquelyn Komplin, 60, were with four others on a single-engine plane that crashed Thursday morning outside of Ketchikan in the Misty Fjords area on the southern coast of Alaska, according to a news release from the Alaska Department of Public Safety.

The pilot, Rolf Lanzendorfer, 64, of Cle Elum, Washington, had reportedly triggered the plane’s emergency beacon prior to the crash, according to the news release.

Beginning Thursday afternoon, U.S. Coast Guard, Alaska State Troopers, Alaska Wildlife Troopers, U.S. Forest Service and volunteers from the Ketchikan Volunteer Rescue Squad responded to the area in search of the crash site.

Poor visibility and deteriorating weather hampered initial aerial search efforts, according to state officials. Then the Coast Guard spotted the crash site in a steep mountainous area near Misty Fjords, about 10 miles northeast of Ketchikan, and reported that all six occupants of the plane were dead.

Alaska State Troopers and a Ketchikan Volunteer Rescue Squad arrived by helicopter at the crash site Saturday afternoon and recovered the bodies, which will be transported to the State Medical Examiner’s Office in Anchorage. State officials said the next of kin have been notified.

The three other passengers on the flight who died are Janet Kroll, 77, of Mount Prospect, Illinois, and 55-year-old Andrea McArthur and 20-year-old Rachel McArthur of Woodstock, Georgia.

The National Traffic Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating the cause of the crash.