ANCHORAGE, Alaska –
One of the two pilots aboard a plane carrying fuel reported that there was a fire on the plane shortly before it crashed and burned outside Fairbanks, killing both people on board, a federal airline official said Wednesday. aviation.
The pilot had made radio contact about the combat emergency shortly after takeoff, said Clint Johnson, head of the National Transportation Safety Board’s Alaska regional office. They were trying to return to Fairbanks International Airport when they lost contact, he said.
The plane crashed about 7 miles (11 kilometers) from Fairbanks, hitting a steep hill and sliding down an embankment to the bank of the Tanana River. Alaska State Troopers say no survivors have been found.
The plane left Fairbanks shortly before 10 a.m., loaded with 3,200 gallons of heating oil for Kobuk, an Inupiat village of fewer than 200 people located about 300 miles (480 kilometers) northwest of Fairbanks.
Johnson said there was also about 1,200 gallons of aviation fuel aboard the DC-54 Skymaster plane, a World War II-era plane that had been converted into a freighter.
It is difficult and expensive to bring fuel to rural Alaska villages, which are remote and difficult to access due to the state’s limited highway system. The Northwest Arctic District said heating oil in Kobuk would cost $15.45 a gallon in 2022.
The Alaska Power Authority said barges often deliver fuel to coastal communities. But in villages where barges can’t run or it’s not economically feasible, air tankers will deliver fuel, but even that is limited by sea or river ice, water levels or the availability of ice roads.
The plane was registered to Alaska Air Fuel of Wasilla. Telephone messages left with the company have not been returned.
The names of the pilots have not been revealed.