Alaska

In protecting the waters, Obama used a 1950s-era law called the Outer Continental Shelf Act that allows presidents to limit areas from mineral leasing and drilling. Environmental groups said Obama's use of the law meant the incoming administration of Republican President-elect Donald Trump could not simply reverse the action but would have to fight it in the courts.

The ban affects federal waters off Alaska in the Chukchi Sea and most of the Beaufort Sea and in the Atlantic from New England to Chesapeake Bay.

Alaska State Troopers say fatalities occurred in the wreck Tuesday near Iliamna (ill-ee-AHM'-nuh), but they didn't know how many. They say rescue personnel are taking injured passengers to the clinic in the small community.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Allen Kenitzer says in an email to The Associated Press that the plane crashed on takeoff at Eastwind Lake, 1 mile north of Iliamna. He says the aircraft was a De Havilland DHC-3 Turbine Otter on floats, and the cause of the crash is not yet known.

The National Transportation Safety Board's preliminary report was released Tuesday. The deHavilland DHC-3 Otter turboprop crashed June 25 on a steep cliff about 25 miles from the town of Ketchikan (KETCH'-ih-kan), killing the pilot and eight cruise ship passengers.

The report drew no conclusions about the cause of the crash.

The NTSB has removed from the wreckage instrument panels that are part of a terrain-avoidance technology known as the Capstone program.

Wind and rain prevented any recovery after the wreckage of the aircraft was found Thursday against a granite rock face, 800 feet above a lake.

There was no immediate indication of why the DeHavilland DHC-3 Otter turboprop went down, killing the nine people during the sightseeing excursion. No names have been released.

Clint Johnson, head of the National Transportation Safety Board's Alaska office, said it was too soon to know circumstances of the crash, including whether the plane flew into the cliff.