Former US senator Ted Stevens, the longest-ever serving Republican in the chamber, has died in a plane crash in a remote part of his home state of Alaska, the state's governor confirmed Tuesday, dpa reported.
Sean O'Keefe, the head of the European aerospace firm EADS' North American unit and a former NASA administrator, was on board the same plane, but the Europe-based company would not confirm whether or not he had survived.
In total, five people died and four survived as the plane went down late Monday night in a secluded south-western part of the state, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said. Reasons for the accident were unknown, but the FAA reported poor weather at the time.
Stevens, 84, had been out of Congress since he lost a 2008 re- election bid in the wake of a damaging corruption scandal. He had survived another plane crash in 1978 in Anchorage, Alaska, in which his first wife was killed.
US President Barack Obama paid tribute to Stevens for his commitment to Alaska and service during in the US military during World War II. He offered condolences to Stevens' family for the "terrible accident."
Alaska Governor Sean Parnell said it was "with sadness that I acknowledge the loss of Ted Stevens." He would not confirm whether or not O'Keefe had survived.
O'Keefe became chief executive of EADS North America last year, helping oversee the European firm's long-running struggle to win a Pentagon contract to build the next generation of aerial refuellers against rival Boeing. EADS is also the parent company of Airbus.
O'Keefe served as NASA chief from 2001 to 2005 under former president George W Bush. He was credited for astutely managing the US space agency after the Columbia shuttle disintegrated on February 1, 2003, while re-entering the Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts on board.
EADS spokesman Guy Hicks would confirm only that O'Keefe was a passenger on the plane, but suggested there was still hope he was alive.
"Local authorities are reporting that there are survivors and a rescue operation is underway," Hicks said in a statement. Rescue workers spent the night with some survivors at the crash site.