Famed bush pilot Jim Tweto and Idaho guide die in Western Alaska plane crash

An Idaho outdoor guide and Unalakleet bush pilot, Jim Tweto, perished Friday in a Western Alaska plane crash that also killed him.

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In an online update, Alaska State Troopers said they got an SOS activation at 11:48 a.m. Friday and a report that a Cessna 180 had crashed 35 miles northeast of Shaktoolik.

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“The aircraft was witnessed taking off but not climbing and then crashing,” troopers said late Friday night.

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The agency later learned that Tweto, 68, and 45-year-old passenger Shane Reynolds from Orofino, Idaho, were dead.

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Saturday, troopers spokesman Tim DeSpain said a third hunter who stayed on the ground witnessed the jet crash.

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Nome troopers found both men's bodies Friday. Troopers informed relatives and sent the men's bodies to Anchorage's State Medical Examiner's Office.

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Saturday, Alaska NTSB chief Clint Johnson said the NTSB and FAA are investigating the tragedy.

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He added the NTSB will send airframe manufacturer and FAA representatives to Nome.

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After a storm system passes, the team will go to the crash site by helicopter.

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Ariel Tweto stated on Instagram that Tweto and "a wonderful hunting guide and friend of our family" perished Friday in her father's Cessna 180.

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Reynolds, who ran Northwest Fishing Expeditions, was a longtime guide in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. Gina and their Idaho daughter survive Reynolds.

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