Grim Details Emerge In Stevens Plane Crash

This image provided by the Alaska State Police on Aug. 11, 2010 shows the wreckage of the amphibious plane carrying former Sen. Ted Stevens which crashed on Monday, Aug. 9, 2010 into a remote mountainside during a fishing trip, killing the state's most beloved political figure and four others and stranding the survivors on a rocky, brush-covered slope near Dillingham, Alaska. Three teenagers and their parents, including the former head of NASA, were on the plane when it plowed into the mountain with so much force that it left a 300-foot gash on the slope, federal investigators said. The photos were taken as a trooper flew overhead in a state helicopter when weather allowed Alaska State Troopers to get near the scene. (AP photo/Alaska State Police)

Horrific story behind the deaths of ex-Alaska senator and four others revealed as investigators try to piece together how the float plane crashed into a mountain during fishing trip

DILLINGHAM, Alaska (FoxNews.com) - Former Sen. Ted Stevens lay dead in the mangled fuselage of the plane. A 13-year-old boy escaped death but watched his father die a few feet away. Medical workers spent the miserable night tending to survivors' broken bones amid a huge slick of fuel that coated a muddy mountainside.

The gruesome details of the plane crash that killed Stevens and four others emerged as investigators tried to figure out how the float plane crashed into a mountain during a fishing trip. Three teenagers and their parents were on the plane, including the former head of NASA.

Authorities were studying weather patterns to understand if overcast skies, rain and gusty winds played a role in a crash that claimed the life of the most revered politician in Alaska history.

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