Airplane Crash Into Frozen Alaska River, Killing 2

An airplane crash that hit an Alaska river shortly after taking off from Fairbanks International Airport on Tuesday killed both people on board, authorities said.

Alaska State Troopers said in a statement that a Douglas DC-4 aircraft took off at 9:55 a.m., and crashed into the frozen Tanana River about seven miles south of the airport minutes later.

"The aircraft slid into a steep hill on the bank of the river where it caught fire," the agency said.

Multiple agencies responded to the scene, but no survivors were located. The fire spread to the tree line along the river, and burned for several hours before firefighters extinguished it.

The Federal Aviation Administration identified the aircraft as a Douglas C-54, a military model of the DC-4 first commissioned during World War II. The agency said the plane crashed under unknown circumstances, and was destroyed.