c 17 crash
17 Globemaster III aircraft has crashed in Alaska at the Elmendorf Air Force base. The crash occured early on Wednesday evening (local time) at about 18:14. According to initial reports, four crew members were on board the aircraft C-17s have survived missile attacks in Iraq and pilot mishaps in Aghanistan without casualty in recent years, including a surface-to-air hit in Baghdad in 2003 and a 2009 incident at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan where a C-17 landed on its belly – with its landing gears disabled.
At a hastily arranged press conference late Wednesday, Air Force Lt. Gen. Dana Atkins said it was likely “nobody escaped” from the fiery crash.
Atkins had no personal information on the jet’s occupants.
“It’s likely there are fatalities involved in this mishap,” Atkins admitted.
Outside of domestic troop and supply transpor, the Boeing jet has been a staple of global humanitarian and diplomatic efforts in recent years, primarily providing support to efforts in the Middle East, Europe, Africa, South America and the Caribbean.
A recent report estimated C-17s have been dropping 250,000 pounds of supplies each day to remote outposts in war-torn Afghanistan, where troops are engaged in a vicious battle with insurgents. So, there are no reports on casualties so far. However, all four people, who were onboard at the time when the C 17 plane crashed and burned at Air Force base near downtown Anchorage around 6:14 pm local timings, are feared to be dead.
The sources also informed that, a team consisted of high-ranked military officers has been formed to investigate the Boeing C 17 plane crash at Elmendorf air base, that is a large Air Force setting up airspace ranges that are among the largest in the world and with more than 1.5 million acres of maneuver area.
