BANGOR, Maine — A Bombardier Challenger 600 crashed shortly after takeoff from Bangor International Airport in Maine.
Update 2:58 p.m. ET, Jan. 26: After the Federal Aviation Administration said that seven people were killed and one was injured, the FAA told CNN that it will defer to the airport about the number of people on board the flight and those killed.
Meanwhile, officials at the Bangor airport said that six people were on board the flight.
“According to the flight manifest there were six people on the flight. No one from the incident was transported to the hospital, and all on the flight are presumed to be deceased. The identities of the people on the flight are not being released publicly at this time, pending positive identification,” airport officials said in the release.
Neither CNN nor the FAA says why there was a discrepancy in the number of people involved.
However, the airport officials said in the release posted around 1:30 p.m., “When an accident like this happens, there are agencies and assets, both state and federal, that must coordinate their respective portions of the investigation. With the large number of stakeholders involved, it is important that we don’t release any information until all parties have completed their work and can confirm the information being released.”
The FAA’s Aviation Safety Information Analysis and Sharing (ASIAS) website still listed seven total fatalities at the time of this update.
Despite the numbers that CNN and WABI were reporting midafternoon on Monday, The Associated Press was still saying that seven people were killed and one person had serious injuries.
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crash, the AP reported.
Original report: Eight people were on board the plane when it crashed around 7:45 p.m., The Associated Press reported. Federal officials said seven of those died while the eighth, a crew member, survived but had serious injuries.
Airport officials released a statement saying the crash involved a single aircraft that was departing.
Typically, Bangor International Airport has direct flights to Orlando, Florida; Washington, D.C. and Charlotte, North Carolina.
This plane was registered to a limited liability corporation in Houston, CNN reported.
Just before the plane crashed, controllers and pilots at the airport were talking about low visibility and deicing, but it was not known who exactly was speaking on the recordings CNN obtained from LiveATC.net.
A controller cleared the flight to take off from runway 33. Two minutes later, a controller loudly said, “All traffic is stopped on the field! All traffic is stopped on the field!”
Then a controller was heard saying, “Aircraft upside down. We have a passenger aircraft upside down.”
The airport closed and emergency vehicles responded.
A Bombardier Challenger 600 is a wide-bodied business jet that can carry nine to 11 passengers, the AP reported.
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