(CNN) — All six people on board a private jet that crashed during takeoff Sunday evening are presumed dead, the Bangor International Airport in Maine said Monday.
Earlier in the day, a preliminary report from the Federal Aviation Administration said seven people were killed, and one person was seriously injured. The FAA later told CNN it is deferring to the airport about the number of people on board and presumed dead.
It was not immediately clear what caused the discrepancy in accounts.
Emergency crews responded to an incident around 7:45 p.m., Bangor International Airport told CNN.
The FAA report says the aircraft “crashed under unknown circumstances on departure, came to rest inverted, and caught fire.”
Both the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating.
The airport will remain closed until at least 12 p.m. on Wednesday, according to a Facebook post from the airport.
The plane is a Bombardier Challenger 650 business jet and is registered to a limited liability corporation in Houston, according to federal records.
Open-source flight tracking data from ADS-B Exchange shows the private jet departed Houston’s Hobby Airport at approximately 2:20 p.m. CST and arrived at Bangor International Airport around 6:10 p.m. EST.
The crash happened as a massive snowstorm tore through the Northeast. Temperatures were well below freezing in Maine, with light snow causing very low visibility.
Air traffic control audio archived by LiveATC.net captures pilots of two other departing airliners discussing concerns about winter conditions at Bangor’s airport around the time of the crash. Pilots of Allegiant Air flight 976 told the pilots of a Breeze Airways flight they had failed a pre-takeoff check to ensure their wings were free of snow and ice. In the exchange, the Breeze pilots said their crew was being pressured to depart, adding, “I keep telling them this is stupid,” while Allegiant responded that conditions were “not looking good” and they might end up staying overnight.
A controller clears the pilot for takeoff on Bangor’s Runway 33.
Nearly two minutes later, a controller loudly radios: “All traffic is stopped on the field! All traffic is stopped on the field!”
Moments later, another controller is heard saying, “Aircraft upside down. We have a passenger aircraft upside down.”
The airport is then closed, and emergency vehicles are allowed to drive on the airfield.
NTSB investigators plan to travel to Bangor but due to the weather, it is difficult to predict when that will be, a spokesperson told CNN Monday morning. However, Jose Saavedra, the Bangor airport director, told reporters at a news conference Monday the NTSB said they “expect to have a team of investigators on site” later in the afternoon.
The airport did not provide further detail on the incident, citing the need to wait for investigators to arrive.
The agency is asking anyone who has surveillance video or information about the incident to contact the NTSB at witness@ntsb.gov.
The-CNN-Wire
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