Another one bites the dust according to AOL News:
Plane Crashes in Alaska's Denali Park, Sparks Wildfire
AOL News (Aug. 2) -- Federal investigators headed to Alaska's Denali National Park today to probe a cargo plane crash that apparently killed three people and sparked a small wildfire.
The large, multi-engine cargo plane crashed Sunday afternoon into the southern slope of Mount Healy, the National Park Service said. The impact was less than a mile from the park's headquarters and about 200 yards from the park's sole road.
The park service said the crash caused fatalities but said the plane was engulfed in flames when the first crews arrived and that it couldn't confirm the number or their identities.
The plane, a Fairchild C-123, was registered to Alaska-based All West Freight Inc. and had three people on board who are presumed dead, the park service said, according to reports.
It was difficult, at first, to determine how many people died because "the plane pretty much disintegrated," park spokeswoman Kris Fister told The Associated Press.
The impact started a wildfire that was contained to a single acre, the park service said. Firefighters were dousing hot spots and planned to stay at the scene overnight, the park service said.
Jeff Kowalczyk, an EMT hiking through the park with his wife, a nurse, told CNN he saw the plane almost upside down as it crashed a few hundreds yards away. The couple rushed toward the site but were kept back by the fire, he said.
"The whole experience was really surreal," Kowalczyk said.
Mount Healy, 5,417 feet high, is about 60 miles northeast of the towering Mount McKinley, North America's highest peak at 20,320 feet.
Sunday's crash came days after a military cargo plane crash in Alaska killed four people on board. The crash Wednesday at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage killed four airmen training for an air show.
This is a subscription only section
Want to read more? It's only €10/year.
No account yet? Just Create an account first and head to the shop
/reeve.gif)
