Retired businessman Martin de Laureal, Sr., 73, a prominent civic leader and community volunteer, was killed Saturday morning in a helicopter crash in southwest Alaska, where he was on a fishing trip with friends.
The Bell 206B helicopter that was carrying de Laureal, three passengers and the pilot crashed in the Naknek River around 9:30 a.m., shortly after taking off from the King Salmon Airport, according to Alaska State Police. De Laureal was the only fatality.
The cause of the crash is unknown, but visibility may have been hampered by fog at the time of takeoff, according to local media reports. A spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board’s regional office in Alaska said investigators would be looking into weather as a factor.
De Laureal was in Alaska at the time of…