A charter plane carrying eight people crashed Thursday near a remote radar site in western Alaska, killing all those onboard, according to military officials.
Clint Johnson, chief of the National Transportation Safety Board’s Alaska region, said the aircraft was carrying two pilots and six passengers. He said there was no immediate information about their condition. Local media reports said there were no survivors in the crash.
The plane had departed from Anchorage and is believed to have crashed early Thursday afternoon while approaching Cape Newenham, Johnson said.
The cause of the crash is yet to be ascertained.
The Alaska Rescue Coordination Centre launched a search-and-rescue operation after receiving a report of an “aircraft incident” near the Cape Newenham Long Range Radar Site. The agency said it would provide further information as it became available.
Previous air crashes in Alaska
In June, a US Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crashed in Alaska on Monday, injuring all four crew members on board, officials had said.
The helicopter crashed near Harbour Mountain in Sitka. No deaths were reported. Rescue teams reached the site at around 11 am local time, roughly an hour after the crash, and transported all four crew members to Mt Edgecumbe Medical Center, the Coast Guard said.
The extent of their injuries was not immediately known.
Petty Officer Ashly Murphy said the helicopter was conducting a routine training flight when it crashed. The cause of the accident remains unclear, and the Coast Guard said it would investigate the incident.
“The safety, well-being, and rescue of our crew members is our absolute, immediate priority,” the Coast Guard said in a post on X.
The crash comes amid a series of major aviation accidents in the US this month. A business jet crashed onto a highway in Laredo, Texas, on Tuesday night, killing one person on board. Earlier, a B-52 crashed during a test flight at Edwards Air Force Base in California on June 15, killing all eight people aboard. On June 14, 12 people were killed when a plane carrying skydivers crashed in Missouri.
With inputs from AP
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