A historic four-engine aircraft dating back to World War II crashed in Fairbanks, Alaska, this week after the two people on board reported a fire breaking out.
No survivors have been found. Recovered remains were sent to the state’s medical examiner for identification, Alaska State Police said Wednesday.
The Douglas plane hit the Tanana River at around 10 a.m. Tuesday, the police said.
The plane was a C54D-DC Skymaster, a type of military aircraft used in World War II, the 1948-49 Berlin Airlift and the Korean War. State police and the National Transportation Safety Board initially identified it as a Douglas DC-4, the civilian equivalent of that plane.
The specific plane that crashed Tuesday was built in Chicago in 1942 and was used by the U.S. Army Air Forces, the U.S. Navy and the British air force before being sold to a California company in 1974, according to The Associated Press.
The plane left Fairbanks International Airport at 9:55 a.m., according to tracking website FlightAware.
The plane was registered with the Federal Aviation Administration as belonging to Alaska Air Fuel Inc. It was carrying 4,400 gallons of fuel as part of a trip to Kobuk, Alaska, some 300 miles away, NTSB Alaska Office Chief Clint Johnson told the Anchorage Daily News.
Of that load, 1,200 gallons were gasoline to power the plane and the other 3,200 gallons were diesel meant for home heating, Mr. Johnson told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.
Alaska Air Fuel has not responded to a request for comment.
A witness whose security cameras caught video of the plane crash indicated that at least one engine caught fire.
“I heard an explosion, looked out the window and there was a plane on fire. It traveled over my farm field. And then there was another explosion, which I assumed was a crash. … One of the engines caught on fire. It was a four-engine plane, one of the engines is what caught on fire and it was going down,” Mike Emers told Anchorage NBC affiliate KTUU-TV.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.
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