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At least seven are dead after a Sunday night plane crash at Bangor International Airport.
That’s according to a crash summary from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.
The fixed-wing, multi-engine Bombardier Challenger 600 crashed about 7:45 p.m. shortly after takeoff and then caught on fire, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
Dispatch call records indicate the plane ended up upside down after the crash.
FAA records show that seven died and one person was seriously hurt. The survivor was identified as a flight crew member.
Later on Monday, an airport spokesperson disputed that FAA count, saying six people perished in the crash. All aboard are presumed dead.
Local officials have been reluctant to confirm the number of fatalities or details about possible survivors, citing the soon-to-launch federal investigation.
An NTSB team has not yet made it to the crash scene because of Sunday night’s snowstorm, but the Bangor airport’s director said that federal investigators were expected to arrive later on Monday.
The plane was registered to Houston-based KTKJ Challenger LLC. But few other details were immediately known about those on board.
In the meantime, the airport will remain closed for at least 24 hours as the investigation proceeds.
That comes months after another fatal plane crash at the airport. In August, the crash of a single-engine Cessna A185F that left 74-year-old Italian aviator Luigi Accusani dead, making Sunday’s crash the second fatal civilian aviation disaster in Bangor and the third ever in the Queen City. A Sept. 17, 1944, military plane crash left its two-man crew dead in Bangor.
The Sunday crash is among the deadliest aviation disasters in Maine history, based on a Bangor Daily News review of military crash records dating back to 1941 and NTSB records for civilian crashes dating back to 1964. Just seven crashes — five military and two civilian — claimed more lives.