Two passengers were critically hurt after a commercial plane went off the runway while landing in a city in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands on Thursday, the air carrier said.
PenAir Flight 3286, which had 39 passengers and three crew members aboard, went off the runway at Dutch Harbor in Unalaska around 5:40 p.m., Pen Air said in a statement. The flight originated in Anchorage.
Among those onboard were members of an Alaska school swim team and their chaperones, but no injuries were reported among those students or adults. “Repeat, everyone is safe and secure,” the superintendent of the Cordova City School District said on its website.
PenAir said that it was informed that two passengers were critically injured and 10 others were receiving medical care in Unalaska.
“Our thoughts and prayers go out to all of our passengers and crew, and the family members of everyone with loved ones on this flight,” PenAir CEO Dave Pflieger said in a statement.
The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash, the airline said.
An eyewitness told The Associated Press that the plane landed about 500 feet beyond the airport. Photos posted to social media appeared to show the plane with its nose hanging over a rocky embankment near the water.
The flight was marketed by Alaska Airlines. That airline said that PenAir operates the Anchorage-Dutch Harbor service for Alaska with a Saab 2000 aircraft.
Randy Batten, an Unalaska resident, told NBC affiliate KTUU of Anchorage that while walking their dog along a road near the runway, he and his wife saw a plane approach and then go around for another attempt. He noted that conditions were windy.
The couple returned home and heard the sound of screeching rubber and scraping metal, “and we knew right away it was probably that plane that we had seen do the flyover on the first attempt,” he said.
Unalaska has a population of around 4,300 and is around 800 miles southwest of Anchorage.