Federal officials say the pilots of a cargo plane carrying thousands of gallons of fuel reported a fire just after taking off from Fairbanks Tuesday, then tried to turn back before they died in a fiery crash along the Tanana River.
The Federal Aviation Administration said in an incident report Wednesday that both pilots of the Douglas C-54, a four-engine propeller plane, were killed at about 10 a.m. Tuesday in the crash roughly seven miles south of Fairbanks International Airport.
Officials have not yet identified the two people killed in the crash or the cause of the onboard fire.
The flight was operated by Alaska Air Fuel, according to Clint Johnson, the National Transportation Safety Board’s Alaska chief.
According to Johnson, the C-54 was carrying 3,200 gallons of fuel oil bound for Kobuk, a small community roughly 300 miles away in the Northwest Arctic Borough.