A plane with eight people on board crashed as it was taking off from the Bangor International Airport around 7:45 p.m. Sunday amid a snowstorm that limited visibility to three-quarters of a mile.
Several flights have been canceled or routed to other airports, according to a news release from airport and city officials. The airport remains closed as of Monday morning.
More than a dozen first responders and emergency crews arrived at the airport Sunday night and were working at the site throughout the night, according to airport officials.
The incident involved only one aircraft, airport spokesperson Aimee Thibodeau said in a joint statement from the airport, Bangor Police Department and city. Flights at the airport have been canceled and encouraged ticketed passengers to contact their airlines for more information, the statement continued.
Maine State Police are assisting on scene, a spokesperson confirmed, referring further questions to the Bangor Police Department.
The Federal Aviation administration and National Transportation Safety Bureau will investigate the crash, the FAA said in an email Sunday night. An FAA spokesperson said preliminary incident reports are generally available online within one business day.
The condition of those aboard was not immediately clear as of 10:20 p.m. Neither the FAA or state police provided details about whether there were any known injuries when asked.
The plane is a Bombardier Challenger 650 jet, according to the FAA. Details about its registration and ownership were not immediately available.
The National Weather Service’s Caribou office predicted Bangor would see more than a foot of snowfall Sunday evening into Monday. The area is under a winter storm warning until 3 a.m. on Tuesday. The warning means “severe winter weather conditions will make travel extremely dangerous,” according to the weather service.
At 7 p.m., the airport had about 4 inches of snow on the ground, and the rate of snowfall was starting to pick up, said Angela LaFlash, a meteorologist at the weather service’s Caribou station.
Snow began to fall over the airport at around 5:30 p.m., bringing a steady decline in visibility, LaFlash said.
When skies are clear, visibility is generally measured at about 10 miles, she said. But at 5:40 p.m., it was down to about 4 miles, “And then it just continued to decrease throughout the rest of the night,” she said.
“At about 7 o’clock, they were at about 1-mile visibility. And then at about 7:08 p.m., they were at three-quarter-mile visibility,” she said. “They remained at three-quarter-mile visibility with light snow all the way until about 9 o’clock.”
Editor’s note: This story was updated Jan. 26 to reflect that the plane was a Bombardier Challenger 650.
