One person died after a commuter airplane went off the end of a runway while landing at an airport in the remote Aleutian Islands fishing community of Unalaska, authorities said on Friday.
Alaska State Troopers identified the victim as David Allan Oltman, 38, of Washington state.
The plane, operated by Peninsula Airways, or PenAir, left Anchorage at about 3:15pm on Thursday with 42 people on board, including 39 passengers and three crew members, a statement from the company said.
One passenger was a child under the age of two, said Clint Johnson, chief of the Alaska region for the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
The flight landed at about 5:40pm and went off the end of the runway.
PenAir, which is owned by Ravn Air Group, said that it is cooperating with federal investigators.
“On behalf of PenAir, Ravn Air Group and all our employees throughout the company, we would like to extend our deepest sympathies and condolences to the family and loved ones of our passenger who passed away,” RavnAir Group president Dave Pflieger said in a statement.
A team of nine NTSB investigators was expected in Anchorage late on Friday, Johnson said.
Some members would remain in Anchorage while others were expected to travel to Unalaska early yesterday, he said, adding that an agency investigator from Alaska was also expected to be on scene as the flight data and cockpit voice recorders were removed from the plane.
Responders arrived at the scene within five minutes of the crash, the city said in a statement.
It said that 11 people were taken a local clinic with injuries ranging from minor to critical.
That number included the man who died and another person who was flown to Anchorage for medical care.
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