oe Sohm/Visions of America/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Jim Tweto, the patriarch of the family of bush pilots who starred on the Discovery Channel series Flying Wild Alaska, died when the small plane he was piloting crashed shortly after takeoff on Friday, Alaskan authorities said. He was 68.
A passenger in Tweto’s Cessna 180, Idaho hunting guide Shane Reynolds, was also killed in the crash, which occurred a few dozen miles northeast of the coastal village of Shaktoolik. Reynolds was 45.
A report on the incident by Alaska State Troopers said that the plane “was witnessed taking off but not climbing and then crashing,” according to the Anchorage Daily News. The witness was a third person in the group’s hunting party who’d stayed on the ground, the newspaper reported.