A private jet carrying eight people has crashed while taking off from Bangor International Airport in the US state of Maine, aviation authorities have said.
The Bombardier Challenger 600 went down at around 19:45 local time (00:45 GMT on Monday), the Federal Aviation Administration stated. The fate and identities of those on board were not immediately clear.
The incident occurred as a dangerous winter storm barrelled across a significant portion of the US, causing fatalities and widespread power outages. Pilots had reportedly been facing visibility challenges prior to the crash.
Bangor is currently under a winter storm warning, with heavy snowfall expected to continue until Tuesday.
Following the crash, Bangor International Airport announced its closure and emergency crews were dispatched to the scene, advising the public to avoid the area.
Audio recordings from air traffic control, reported by CBS News, captured discussions between controllers and pilots regarding poor visibility just minutes before the incident. Shortly after, a controller reported a passenger aircraft upside down. Images from the crash site depicted smoke and flames rising from the runway.
This disruption added to the chaos from the winter storm, which had already led to over 11,000 flight cancellations and nearly 5,500 delays across the United States on Sunday, as tracked by FlightAware.
Airports in major cities including Philadelphia, Washington DC, Baltimore, North Carolina, New York, and New Jersey experienced significant disruptions due to the weather conditions.
The National Weather Service forecasted that parts of Maine, including Bangor, could see between 10 and 16 inches (25-40cm) of snow accumulate by Tuesday morning.
