14 DAY TRIAL // Ten people have died when a plane, used as an air taxi, collapsed at the Soldotna Airport during the weekend.
The National Transportation Safety Board has given no information about how many people have been on board the plane. Officials believe that there were no survivors on the plane.
“There were no survivors located. [...] It is unknown how many individuals were onboard the aircraft at the time of the crash,” a spokesperson for the Soldotna Police Department said in a statement.
The pilot and nine passengers died when the Havilland DHC3 Otter air taxi went down in Soldotna on Sunday, KTUU wrote.
Clint Johnson of the NTSB in Anchorage mentions that the aircraft crashed on Funny River road in Soldotna.
When Central Emergency Services arrived at the scene, it was fully engulfed in flames. Fire and Medic personnel with CES and the Alaska State Troopers were also dispatched to the crash site.
“First responders are attempting to remove the remains of the people that were on board as well as to identify the victims and notify family members,” the SPD rep said in the news release.
At this point, there is no information about what brought the air taxi down or whether or not it was just landing or preparing to take off.
“It is unknown if the plane was taking off or landing when it crashed,” the police department comments.
An investigator from the National Transportation Safety Board, who was originally sent to examine the San Fransisco International Airport site, was rerouted to Alaska for further inquiries.
As we noted, Asiana Airlines flight 214 from Seoul, South Korea, went down in San Francisco on Saturday, killing two people.
Recent reports reveal that one of the passengers killed in the accident, a teenager, may have been run over by emergency staff on the runway.