Ted Stevens in Plane Crash

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Update 12:48pm: A friend and former aide to Stevens tells an Alaska news channel that Stevens was killed in the crash. (However he now says that has not been confirmed.)

Nine people were aboard a plane that crashed in southwest Alaska today, including former Republican Senator Ted Stevens, a one-time Senate titan who was defeated in 2008 after an ethics scandal. (Also on board was former NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe.) But four people are believed to have survived the crash. As we await details, it may be worth remembering that the 86-year-old Stevens has actually survived another plane crash, back in 1978. That crash, of a Learjet landing at Anchorage International airport in gusty wind, also killed five people, including Stevens’ wife. Two people survived, including Stevens, who walked away from the scene. We should know soon whether Stevens has dodged death again.

Update: The Times adds an eerie detail:

Before that 1978 crash, Mr. Stevens reportedly spoke of a premonition that he would die in a plane crash, a fate that is not unknown to many in Alaska who travel the vast state in small planes.