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A post by Pat

*UPDATE The death of Sen. Stevens has been confirmed.

Reactions to the Death of Ted Stevens
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Nine people including ex-Sen Ted Stevens were aboard a small plane which crashed in Alaska. There were earlier reports that the Senator had been killed in the crash, but there is no confirmation.

Ted Stevens Survived 1978 Plane Crash

Former Sen. Ted Stevens was reportedly in a plane crash overnight that killed five people. There are conflicting reports as of now on whether Stevens was killed in the crash (A family friend told an NBC affiliate in Alaska that Stevens had been killed, but later said that the senator’s death was not confirmed).

Stevens was one of two survivors in a 1978 plane crash at Anchorage International Airport. Five people were killed in that crash, including Stevens’ first wife Ann.

The senator reportedly indirectly blamed his colleague from Alaska, then-Sen. Mike Gravel, for ending up in the plane crash. He had been flying in between Alaska and Washington to work on a land bill Gravel had been holding up. “After returning to Washington, Stevens began murmuring that Gravel’s political gamesmanship was indirectly to blame for the crash,” the New Republic reported in 2007.

Before that 1978 crash, the New York Times reports, Stevens reportedly said he had a premonition he would die in a plane crash.