Ted Stevens, who helped shape modern Alaska with federal laws and billions in federal dollars but whose 40-year Senate career ended ignominiously when he was narrowly defeated for re-election in 2008 after a corruption conviction that was later voided, died Monday in a plane crash in southwest Alaska. He was 86.
His death was confirmed Tuesday afternoon by a former member of his Congressional staff.
Mr. Stevens was one of nine people aboard the plane, five of whom were believed to have been killed, the authorities said. The downed airplane was spotted around 7 p.m. Monday. Mr. Stevens’s body was found just after daylight Tuesday, according to the aide, who would only speak anonymously out of respect for the senator’s family.