was among the friends and teenagers aboard the plane that crashed so forcefully it left a 300-foot garbin in the side of a mountain. this is the image, one of the first, which investigators have reached. brad wheelis has more. >> reporter: from washington, d.c., to his beloved home state of alaska, former senator ted stevens is being remembered as a man as large in life as the state he represented for 40 years. seens was among five killed. the aircraft was headed to a popular fishing destination over rugged terrain and through miserable weather about 330 miles southwest of anchorage when it crashed. >> they estimated there was about a 100-yard gash leading up the hillside as the plane traveled up the hillside and then came to rest. >> reporter: also on board that flight, ex-nasa chief sean o'keefe. he was one of four survivors. since people in se use planes like automobiles, stevens was no stranger to these kinds of remote flights. ironically, he had survived a plane crash in the state in 1978. his first wife ann and all others on board perished. stevens was the republicanngest and was ne