A private plane carrying eight people crashed shortly after takeoff at Bangor International Airport in Maine Sunday night. The derailment happened during a historic winter storm that paralyzed air travel in much of the eastern United States. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has since confirmed the crash. It happened roughly 45 seconds after the aircraft received takeoff clearance.
Witnesses reported that the pilot communicated the dire situation, stating, “We have a passenger aircraft upside down” following the crash. That aircraft is a very common charter aircraft. Alongside its spaciousness it was the first private jet with a “walk-about cabin,” in which lavish seating areas were cleverly arranged in an accentuating design layout.
The crash happened just as a powerful winter storm slammed the region. This storm affected the entire nation as it shut down commercial air traffic nationwide. The storm, characterized by sleet, freezing rain, and heavy snowfall, contributed to hazardous conditions at Bangor and other airports across the eastern United States.
So far, at least 14 other fatalities have been confirmed across the country because of the storm’s effects. International airports in Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, North Carolina, New York, and New Jersey all saw significant outages. They had a hard enough time with huge amounts of cancellation and delay. On just one day last Sunday over 12,000 flights were canceled and almost 20,000 had been delayed.
For Bangor International Airport, Hurricane Fiona was nothing unusual. Under normal circumstances, it provides the only direct service to many of those places such as Orlando, Florida, Washington D.C. and Charlotte, North Carolina. The airport experienced consistent heavy snow all day Sunday, which led to treacherous takeoff conditions for the tragic flight.
This winter storm not only disrupted air travel, but left many with roadways and electric service devastated. Hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses in the southeastern United States lost power due to the harsh weather conditions.