An Allegiant Airlines crew scheduled to depart from Bangor International Airport Sunday night decided to turn back to the gate as the biggest winter storm of the season descended on the city.
“One, our de-ice fluid just failed, and two, I don’t think the visibility is good enough for us to go. So we’re going to have to taxi back to the gate here,” the pilot said, according to air traffic control recordings.
But a private jet bound for Paris attempted to take off about half an hour later. The plane rolled upside down and crashed back down onto the airport grounds, killing all six people on board.
The Bangor Daily News collected information from flight tracking websites, air traffic control recordings and statements from local and federal officials to piece together what happened in the minutes leading up to the crash and in the hours that followed.
Those records show that the weather was becoming increasingly hazardous leading up to the crash, although it’s not yet known what ultimately caused it.
Snow began falling in Bangor before 6 p.m. Sunday, according to National Weather Service records. The plane, a Bombardier Challenger 600, had taken off from Houston about three hours earlier and landed in Bangor at 6:09 p.m., according to flight tracking websites.
Shortly after 7 p.m., air traffic controllers at the Bangor airport began indicating that weather conditions were affecting visibility.
“I’m going to say visibility is going to reduce here to about a mile here very shortly,” a controller said.
About a minute later, someone — presumably the Challenger’s pilot — told air traffic controllers he was heading over to get de-iced.
The pilot requested type one and type four de-icing treatments around 7:17 p.m.
“Let’s do type one entire ship, type four wings and sail,” he said.
The jet received de-icing services at the airport during a refueling stop en route to its final destination, airport spokesperson Aimee Thibodeau confirmed Tuesday. Challenger 600 planes have a history of failing in icy weather and are known to be particularly vulnerable to snow and ice on their wings.
Around the same time the Challenger started de-icing, the Allegiant Airlines pilot turned back to the gate, questioning whether he would be able to depart that night.
At 7:35 p.m., the Challenger’s pilot announced that the plane was “ready to taxi,” and around 7:42 p.m., it was cleared for takeoff.
Three minutes later, the plane crashed.
“All traffic is stopped on the field. All traffic is stopped on the field,” an air traffic controller repeated.
A controller announced that a passenger aircraft had turned upside down and the airport was closed. A National Transportation Safety Board spokesperson later confirmed the plane caught fire after crashing.
Hours went by with little information from local officials about what had happened to the plane and the people on board.
At 8:25 p.m., Bangor International Airport said on its Facebook page that there was an “incident” under investigation and first responders were on the scene, telling people to avoid the area.
About an hour later, a National Transportation Safety Board spokesperson confirmed to the Bangor Daily News that the incident was a crash. One more hour later, Bangor police spokesperson Jeremy Brock issued a statement saying that first responders were expecting to work for several more hours before they would have an update.
No local or federal agency provided a number of casualties or total people on board until the following morning, when the Federal Aviation Administration released a preliminary report at 6:46 a.m. saying the crash killed seven passengers and seriously injured one crew member — numbers it would later correct.
Airport Director Jose Saavedra would not confirm during a press conference around 10 a.m. if there were any fatalities in the crash or if any victims were transported to the hospital, citing the ongoing National Transportation Safety Board investigation.
That afternoon, around 1:30 p.m., the airport and a Bangor police spokesperson released a statement disputing the FAA’s report, saying six people — not eight — were listed on the flight manifest. All were presumed deceased and no one was transported to the hospital after the crash, local officials said.
The first victims were identified Monday night by Texas officials and local media. One was Tara Arnold, an attorney and wife of Kurt Arnold, co-founder of the Texas law firm Arnold & Itkin, which shares an address with the plane’s registered owner. The other was a pilot, Jacob Hosmer.
Another victim, event planner Shawna Collins, was identified by Houston local media Tuesday morning.
Following delays caused by the storm, NTSB investigators began arriving Tuesday morning, according to an airport spokesperson. The airport has remained closed since the crash, and has said it won’t reopen until at least Thursday. The NTSB has asked that the crash scene be preserved, according to an airport spokesperson.
More than 24 hours after releasing its preliminary report, the FAA amended it Tuesday afternoon, now showing four passengers and two flight crew members killed.