Four people were killed when a small plane crashed into shallow waters next to a remote coastal town in Alaska on Wednesday.

The Piper PA-24-260 crashed at 1.15pm just moments after taking off from the airport in the small coastal town of Seldovia, about 136 miles southwest of Anchorage, according to Clint Johnson, the National Transportation Safety Board’s Alaska region chief. 

It was then left submerged in about 15 feet of water in the Seldovia Slough near the shore as first responders struggled to reach the aircraft in the frigid water, he said.

Finally at around 6.30pm, after the tide level dropped, Alaska State Troopers said they were able to extract four bodies from inside the plane.

The victims’ identities have not yet been released. 

The state medical examiner will now conduct autopsies on the remains, while the NTSB investigates the crash. 

Four people were killed when a Piper PA-24-260 (like the one pictured) crashed in the waters in Alaska on Wednesday

The Piper PA-24-260 crashed at 1.15pm just moments after taking off from the airport in the small coastal town of Seldovia, about 136 miles southwest of Anchorage

It comes less than one week after another plane crashed at a remote military site in western Alaska, killing all eight people on board. 

The aircraft had been making its second runway approach in heavy fog and its pilots could not see the gravel airstrip, authorities said.