Rescuers saw a waving hand

The cause of the crash was being investigated yesterday.

Several medical volunteers who scrambled up the muddy, boulder-strewn slopes to the crash site found the survivors trapped inside the fuselage, with one still strapped into the copilot seat, and five dead nearby.

Stevens, 86, had close ties to everyone on the plane, including Anchorage-based General Communications Inc., a phone and Internet company that owned the plane, and the lodge where the passengers were staying.

GCI frequently hosted high-profile guests, politicians, and regulators at the Agulowak Lodge on Lake Aleknagik for fishing trips, drawing scrutiny.At a hearing, lawmakers grilled GCI executive Dana Tindall, who died in the crash, about the trips.

Tindall testified that Stevens and William “Bill’’ Phillips Sr., who also died in the wreck, once arranged for a staff member to travel to the lodge to learn about the telecommunications world as GCI looked to expand its business.

Former NASA chief Sean O’Keefe, who survived the crash, and Stevens were fishing companions and longtime Washington colleagues who worked together on the Senate Appropriations Committee led by the GOP lawmaker.

Phillips and Jim Morhard, who survived the crash, also worked with him in Washington. Morhard founded a lobbying firm. Phillips was a lobbyist.

Authorities said the group boarded the 1957 float plane around 3:15 p.m. local time for a trip to a salmon fishing camp.

Lodge operators called the fish camp at 6 p.m. to inquire when the party would be returning for dinner, but were told that they never showed up. Civilian aircraft were dispatched, and pilots quickly spotted the wreckage a few miles from the lodge, authorities said.

A doctor and EMTs were flown to the area and hiked to the crash site as fog and rain blanketed the area and nightfall set in, making it impossible for rescue officials to reach the scene until daybreak.

Tom Tucker, who helped shuttle the medical workers to the scene, described seeing a survivor still strapped in the front seat with the nose of the plane disintegrated. His head was cut, and his legs appeared to be broken.

Tucker and the other responders made a tarp tent over the missing cockpit to keep him dry. It was rainy and cold, and he believes the passengers’ heavy duty waders protected them.

The other people who died are were pilot Theron “Terry’’ Smith, 62, of Eagle River; and Tindall’s 16-year-old daughter, Corey. In addition to O’Keefe, his son Kevin, and Morhard, the other survivor was Phillips’s son, William “Willy’’ Phillips Jr., 13.

A spokesman for the O’Keefe family said yesterday that the injuries to O’Keefe and his son did not appear to be life-threatening. Morhard was listed in serious condition.