No survivors after freight plane crashes in Maine
By Kerry Brookes
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LITCHFIELD, Maine (WMTW) — The Kennebec County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to Maine’s Total Coverage Wednesday morning that there were no survivors after a small twin-engine freight plane crashed Tuesday night in Litchfield. Two people were on board the plane when it went down. There are no known injuries to anyone on the ground.
State police say they are assisting the Kennebec County Sheriff’s Office, as well as firefighters from Monmouth, Gardiner and Litchfield at the scene on Oak Hill Road in Litchfield. Investigators said Wednesday morning they would likely remain on the scene for a couple of days.
The area where the plane went down is heavily wooded.
According to 9-1-1 dispatchers, witnesses reported seeing the small plane crash before hearing a loud explosion.
Linda Desrosiers, who lives on Oak Hill Road, told Maine’s Total Coverage that her husband was sitting on their porch and saw the tail end of the plane as it was going down.
“Then we heard the explosion and felt the house shake,” she wrote. She says they were among the first arriving at the site of the crash, and saw “debris strewn across the road, a few small smoking areas and an eerie quiet.”
“The plane was totally demolished in the area we were in. The biggest piece was no larger than 3 feet wide,” she told us.
A dispatcher for the New England branch of the Federal Aviation Administration told Maine’s Total Coverage that flight WIG634 took off from Lewiston’s municipal airport. WIG634 is owned by Manchester, NH-based Wiggins Airways, which describes itself as “a cargo airline with operations throughout the Northeast United States.”
Maine’s Total Coverage has reached out to Wiggins Airways for comment.
Data from the flight tracking website FlightAware.com shows a meandering path south over Sebago Lake towards the New Hampshire border, before turning northward past Lewiston. The plane then turned back towards Lewiston after flying over the Wales airport.
FlightAware data also shows the last signal from the plane’s transponder at 5:40:56 p.m., when the plane was still at an altitude of 2,975 feet.
The National Transportation Safety Board and FAA will be investigating the crash.
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