No survivors in crash on the North Shore of Oahu after plane burst into flames

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Eleven passengers and crew were killed on Friday evening when their plane crashed near an airfield in Hawaii, authorities said.

The twin-engine King Air plane, with eleven people onboard, went down soon after take off from Dillingham Airfield, on Oahu’s North Shore, and there were no survivors, the Hawaii Department of Transportation said.

“Upon arrival, we saw the plane fully engulfed in fire,” Honolulu fire chief Manuel Neves told reporters. “The first crews on scene extinguished the fire.”

Neves said the crashed occurred near the perimeter fencing of the small airport.

“They’re quite a ways away from the runway,” he said.

The plane was used in a sky dive operation, and Neves said some family members of those on board waited at the airport for the plane to return. The debris field was relatively small, about 50ft by 50ft, he said.

“In my 40 years as a firefighter here in Hawaii, this is the most tragic aircraft incident what we’ve had,” he said.

Names, ages and genders of the deceased were not immediately released. Neves said many details were still not known about the flight. He said witnesses had said the plane was inbound to the airport when the crash occurred but that was not confirmed.

