Showers Around as Military Plane Crashes in Anchorage
A plume of smoke is seen after a plane crashes on the Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska, Wednesday evening. (AP Photo/Roger Herrera)
Light showers were moving through Anchorage, Alaska, Wednesday evening when a military plane crashed and burned. The fate of the four people onboard is grim.
The Associated Press reports that the military cargo plane went down at 6:14 p.m. local time (10:41 p.m. EDT) at the Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage. The plane was on a local training run.
Based upon weather observations from the two airports in Anchorage (Merrill Field Airport and the city's International Airport), light showers were dampening parts of the city at the time of the crash.
Fog was not obscuring visibility at the ground. In fact, visibility was at least 10 miles at both airports throughout Wednesday evening.
The pilot would have only encountered poor visibility if the plane entered into the clouds.
The base of the thick blanket of clouds that covered Anchorage at the time of the crash ranged between 5,500 and 6,000 feet. Scattered cloud cover was observed down to 1,200 feet.
There were four people on the plane when it crashed. During a press conference Wednesday night, Lt. Gen. Dana Atkins said that it was "likely nobody escaped."
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