Published Aug 21, 2026, 9:04 AM EDT
The crash happened at about 12:15 p.m. on Thursday.
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Published Aug 21, 2026, 9:04 AM EDT
Eight people have died after a charter aircraft crashed at a remote radar site in western Alaska on Thursday. The Cessna 441 plane crashed near Cape Newenham Long Range Radar Site Airport, roughly 450 miles west of Anchorage, Alaska, killing everyone on board, according to the military. The crash took place at around 12:15 p.m. local time and it is not yet clear what mission this aircraft was serving when it crashed. “This is a devastating loss for our military family and the communities we serve,” U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Robert Davis, commander of Alaskan Command, the Alaskan North American Aerospace Defense Command Region and Eleventh Air Force, said in a statement. The people on board were two pilots who flew the plane with six passengers aboard, according to Clint Johnson, the National Transportation Safety Board's Alaska region chief. Military charter aircraft are civilian planes the Army rents to transport troops, equipment and supplies globally when standard military fleets cannot handle the operational demand. The plane had taken off from the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport and was headed to Cape Newenham, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement. But it failed to reach its destination, which is managed by the Pacific Air Forces Regional Support Center.
