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 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 around 3:15 p.m. 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 age 2, said Clint Johnson, chief of the Alaska region for the National Transportation Safety Board.
The flight landed around 5:40 p.m. and went off the end of the runway. PenAir is owned by Ravn Air Group and said 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,” Dave Pflieger, president of RavnAir Group, said in a statement.
A commuter airplane has crashed near the airport in a small Alaska community on the Bering Sea, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2019, in Unalaska, Alaska. Freelance photographer Jim Paulin says the crash at the Unalaska airport occurred Thursday after 5 p.m. Paulin says the Peninsula Airways flight from Anchorage to Dutch Harbor landed about 500 feet (152 meters) beyond the airport near the water. (Jim Paulin via AP)
Johnson said a team of nine NTSB investigators was expected in Anchorage late Friday. Some members would remain in Anchorage while others were expected to travel to Unalaska early Saturday, he said. Additionally, an agency investigator from Alaska was expected to be on scene as the flight data and cockpit voice recorders were removed from the plane, he said.
The city, in a statement, said responders arrived at the scene within five minutes of the crash. It said 11 people were taken a local clinic with injuries ranging from minor to critical.
Law enforcement has secured the scene pending the arrival of NTSB investigators, the city said.
Unalaska is about 825 miles southwest of Anchorage.
This is an Associated Press report by Becky Bohrer.
