JUNEAU, Alaska - A spokesman for the family of Ted Stevens says the former senator has died in a plane crash in Alaska.
Mitch Rose tells The Associated Press that the family had been notified that the 86-year-old Stevens was among those killed.
The National Transportation Safety Board earlier said five people were killed and four survived the Alaska crash of a small plane that also was carrying former NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe.
The fate of O'Keefe was not known.
Ted Lopatkiewicz, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board, told The Associated Press in Washington that reports from Alaska authorities were that nine people were aboard the aircraft and that "it appears that there are five fatalities." He said the NTSB which is sending at team to the crash site in southwest Alaska.