Thursday update:

The pilot who was hurt Wednesday when her plane went down in the Kenai River near Sterling was having mechanical issues before the crash, according to Alaska State Troopers.

Sterling resident Charley Tegerdine, 27, reported she experienced issues with the plane’s flight controls immediately before the accident, troopers wrote in an online dispatch report. The Piper PA-18 crashed on the bank of the Kenai River, they wrote.

The Federal Aviation Administration Flight Standards Services and the National Transportation Security Board have taken over the investigation, according to the dispatch. Alaska State Troopers responded to the accident just before 3 p.m. along with Central Emergency Services and Alaska State Parks.

Original story:

One person was hurt after a small plane crashed near Sterling on Wednesday.

Central Emergency Services responded to the site of a plane crash on the Kenai River near Sterling on Wednesday afternoon. The small aircraft, a Supercub, had gone down in the river relatively close to the shore, said CES Captain Josh Thompson.

“(It was) close enough that we could get it without too much trouble,” he said.

He said he could not disclose the gender of the person aboard or the licensing location of the plane. The single person aboard was transported to Central Peninsula Hospital with life-threatening injuries, he said. The plane was still at the site Wednesday afternoon.

—Staff Reports