A video shared on social media shows the moment a plane burst into flames before crashing in central Alaska on April 23.
A Douglas DC-4 aircraft crashed into the Tanana River shortly after takeoff in the morning from Fairbanks International Airport, authorities said. Two people were onboard and no survivors were found.
The plane slid into a steep hill on the bank of the river and caught fire, said a report by Alaska State Troopers. The crash site was about seven miles south of the airport and people were advised to stay away.
Alaska State Troopers said they responded to the scene alongside multiple agencies, including the Alaska Wildlife Troopers, the University of Alaska Police, Fairbanks Airport Police and Fire, Fairbanks Police Department and two volunteer fire departments.
Terrifying video showing the Douglas C-54’s engine burst into flames above a farm, moments before the plane crashed on the Tanana River, near Fairbanks, Alaska, earlier today.
I spoke with Mike Emers, a local farmer and one of the first people who ran to the plane crash with his… pic.twitter.com/YbQQXeFbTb
— Kerem İnal (@keremaliinal) April 24, 2024
The video, posted to X by Kerem Inal, a visual verification producer for ABC, shows what appears to be the plane’s engine bursting into flames before the aircraft descends and disappears from view behind some trees.
Inal’s post said the video was filmed by local farmer Mike Emers, who was one of the first people to reach the crash site. Inal reported that Emer said there was “nothing left.”
In an interview on local media, Emers described “a big explosion that rocked the ground. And then explosions happened after that.”
“There was debris all the way up the hill, maybe 100, 150 feet. Everything was torched there. The forest was on fire,” he said.
Alaska State Troopers
The AST report said the National Transportation Safety Board was “responding to conduct an investigation into the cause of the crash.”
Clint Johnson, chief of the NTSB’s Alaska regional office, told the Associated Press that it wasn’t clear what happened between the plane taking off and the crash.
It is also unclear what the purpose and destination of the flight was.
In a statement to Newsweek on Wednesday, the NTSB said the plane crashed “under unknown circumstances.”
“NTSB investigators are en route to the scene and expected to arrive shortly. Once on scene, they will begin the process of documenting the site and examining the aircraft. Once that work is complete, the aircraft will be recovered to a secure facility for further evaluation.”
Newsweek contacted Federal Aviation Administration for comment via email outside of normal business hours.
The DC-4 is a four-engine aircraft with propellers, designed in the 1930s by the Douglas Aircraft Company. Almost 80 of the planes remain in commercial service, mostly as freighters, according to www.airliners.net.
A military variant, the C-54, was considered vital during World War II for transporting aid.
In the United States, approximately 1,200 plane crashes occurred in 2021, according to data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. This means that on average, about 3 to 3.5 planes crash per day in the country.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.