Cargo Plane Crash on Training Exercise Kills Four US Airmen

Anchorage, AKFour US servicemen were killed in a plane crash in Alaska, the Associated Press (AP) reported this morning. The four airmen were riding in a cargo plane during a training procedure when the aircraft, a C-17, crashed and burned in a fireball at the Elmendorf Air Force base in Anchorage.

The accident occurred as the airmen were training for a demonstration that had been planned for an upcoming weekend air show, according to Lt. General Dana Atkins of the Base. The accident occurred at about 6:14 pm Anchorage time on July 28. Witnesses recalled seeing a big, gray plume of smoke and a fireball, with flames that shot 750 feet into the air.

AP reported that three of the men hailed from the Alaska Air National Guard, and the fourth was on active duty at Elmendorf. Their names had not been released as of Thursday morning, pending the notification of next of kin.

The doomed aircraft was from the 3rd Wing, based at the Elmendorf base located near downtown Anchorage.

The city has seen its share of air crashes this summer. In June a child was killed and four others sustained burns when the small plane they were flying crashed after taking off from the small airplane facility in Anchorage.

Within days of that crash, another small plane landed successfully on a busy Anchorage highway. No injuries were reported.

There was no word as to weather conditions at the time of the C-17 cargo plane crash.