World News
All eight on board die as a charter aircraft crashes at an Alaskan radar site
By Staff Writer | 22 August 2026
The aircraft came down on its second approach to Cape Newenham, about 450 miles west of Anchorage. Two of those killed worked for the United States Army Corps of Engineers.
A charter aircraft carrying eight people crashed on Thursday at a remote radar site on the western coast of Alaska, and everyone on board was killed. The aircraft came down at Cape Newenham Long Range Radar Site Airport, about 450 miles west of Anchorage, which one of the accounts of the crash converts to 725 kilometres. The military said search and rescue teams landed near the site and confirmed that there were no survivors.
This is a devastating loss for our military family and the communities we serve
Lieutenant General Robert Davis, commander of Alaskan Command
General Davis described those on board as dedicated professionals working in a demanding environment, and said the immediate priority was support for their families and colleagues. The military statement did not say what work the people on board were doing and referred to the aircraft only as a civilian contracted aircraft.
What is known about the flight
Two pilots and six passengers were on board, according to Clint Johnson, the Alaska region chief of the National Transportation Safety Board. The aircraft was a Cessna 441 and it had taken off from Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport bound for Cape Newenham, the aviation regulator said. The crash happened at about a quarter past twelve in the afternoon, on the aircraft's second approach, after it had been unable to land on an earlier attempt. Weather information published by an air safety body records fog at the time.
The radar site sits in a network of remote installations that track aircraft moving through Alaskan airspace and along the state's borders, and is managed by the Pacific Air Forces Regional Support Center.
Two of the dead worked for the Corps of Engineers
On Friday morning the joint base at Elmendorf-Richardson confirmed that two of the people on board were employees of the United States Army Corps of Engineers and that their next of kin had been told. The statement did not name them. The military said the names of everyone on board would be released 24 hours after their next of kin had been notified, which is the ordinary practice.
Reaching the wreckage will take days
Mr Johnson told a briefing on Friday afternoon that the wreckage lies "in an area of steep mountainous terrain" and that simply getting to it would be difficult. "Obviously getting there is going to be a challenge ... we're probably going to end up having to charter an airplane down there ourselves," he said. Once the wreckage has been lifted out by helicopter it is expected to be flown out on a cargo aircraft so that it can be examined, an operation he described as very standard procedure in Alaska.
Neither the safety board nor the aviation regulator has offered any account of a cause. Both said they are investigating. Until the wreckage has been recovered and read, the only established facts are the ones above: eight people, two approaches, fog, and a hillside on the Bering Sea coast that a scheduled service does not fly to.