Pennsylvania woman killed during rafting trip in Alaska

An Alaska state flag flies outside the Atwood Building in downtown Anchorage, Alaska, Friday, March 11, 2022. The state has issued a corrected birth certificate for Benny Benson, the teenager who won a design contest for the flag in 1927. That means he was 14, not 13, when he came up with the design of the Big Dipper and North Star on a plain blue field. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)

COPPER CENTER, Alaska – A Pennsylvania woman died in a rafting accident in Alaska’s 49th state over the weekend.

According to Alaska State Troopers, the incident occurred on Sunday around 6:25 p.m. on the Klutina River near Copper Center, about 250 kilometers as the crow flies from Anchorage.

A raft belonging to a group of three was hit by a pile of landslide debris and overturned.

On board the raft there was a guide and three passengers.

One of the passengers, 65-year-old Deborah Burke from Pennsylvania, died from her injuries, police said.

The rafting guide and another passenger were flown to Anchorage with serious injuries.

Alaska police did not say which part of Pennsylvania Burke was from.