A small plane chartered by the 🇺🇸 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers crashed Thursday in western Alaska, killing all eight people on board, the U.S. military said.
The plane was traveling to a remote aircraft-tracking radar site when it went down.
The crash happened near Cape Newenham Long Range Radar Site Airport, approximately 450 miles west of Anchorage.
The twin-engine Cessna 441 was scheduled to land there after taking off from Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, the Federal Aviation Administration said Friday.
Clint Johnson, the National Transportation Safety Board's Alaska region chief, said there were two pilots and six passengers on board. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said in a statement that two of its employees were among those killed.
"This is a devastating loss for our military family and the communities we serve," U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Robert Davis, commander of Alaskan Command, the Alaskan North American Aerospace Defense Command Region and Eleventh Air Force, said in a statement.
The NTSB and the FAA are investigating the crash. It happened in foggy weather, according to information from a service that's part of the nonprofit Flight Safety Foundation.
Five NTSB investigators were traveling to the accident site, spokesman Peter Knudson said in a statement Friday morning. The wreckage will be documented and moved to a secure facility for further examination.
The airport is a private military site. The radar site is managed by the Pacific Air Forces Regional Support Center. It's part of a network of remote radar sites that track aircraft operating in Alaska's airspace and along its borders, the statement from Alaskan Command said.
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