Cargo plane crashes at air force base

A military cargo plane carrying four people on a training run crashed at an air force base in Alaska, the US Air Force said.
By The Newsroom
Published 29th Jul 2010, 23:26 BST
Updated 29th Jul 2010, 23:26 BST

Witnesses reported seeing a ball of fire rising hundreds of feet high near downtown Anchorage. Access to the crash site at Elmendorf Air Force Base has been closed.

The C-17, from the 3rd Wing based at Elmendorf, had been carrying four people doing a training demonstration for an upcoming weekend air show, Lt Gen Dana Atkins said.

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He said the plane was not an ejection aircraft, and said no one was expected to have survived.

Anchorage Fire Department captain Bryan Grella described seeing the crash from a downtown fire station about two miles away.

"It was a big, grey plume of smoke, and I saw a fireball go up," he said, adding that the plume rose about 750ft in the air.

A board of officers will investigate the crash.