Ten people were killed on Sunday when a floatplane crashed and burst into flames at an airport in the Alaska Kenai Peninsula town of Soldotna, officials said.
No survivors were found, according to the Soldotna Police Department. The plane, a de Havilland DHC3 Otter, was operated by a local air-taxi company, Rediske Air, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said.
The plane crashed at the Soldotna airport at about 11:20 a.m. local time, the FAA said. It was initially unclear whether the plane was departing or landing at the time, the FAA said.
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate, officials said.
Victims' names were not released on Sunday. Police said they were still trying to identify the victims and locate family members.
Rediske Air provides sightseeing charters and air-taxi services, according to a profile with the Better Business Bureau. The mountainous Kenai Peninsula, south of Anchorage, is a popular destination for tourists, fishermen and hikers.
Voice of Russia, Reuters

Operation Capstone
For 16 år siden kom dette prosjektet på banen i Alaska. Jeg var på Abbotsford i Canada samme år hvor det ble gitt en briefing om dette ADS-B baserte systemet som var ment å bedre flysikkerheten i staten. Jeg  hørte:
Capstone is a proving ground for such new technologies as satellite navigation, broadcast weather and flight information, required navigation performance (RNP), automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) and on-board synthetic vision display, among others. It is being conducted appropriately in Alaska, where air transportation is essential, as less than 10 percent of the state is accessible by road.

Dette bedret sikkerheten vesentlig, men fremdeles er CFIT den største ulykkesfaktoren. For tre år siden omkom en tidligere senator i en ulykke, også med en Turbo-Otter. Ny arbeidsgruppe ble nedsatt, men fremdeles skjer CFIT. Dette var ikke årsaken til ulykken presentert over, men staten Alaska har voldsom trafikk med fly av typen Otter og Beaver. Jeg satt en gang på Pan Pacific Hotel i Vancouver og iakttok sjøflytrafikken i havnen der. Ikke akkurat Alaska, men noe som liknet terrengmessig. Trafikken må betegnes som stor. Vær og terreng er og blir en utfordring.