While investigators sift through the wreckage of Tuesday’s crash site to gain clues on why the cargo plane went down, state hazardous-substance specialists are trying to find out how much fuel the aircraft may have spilled in to the Tanana River.
A state Department of Environmental Conservation official says the agency received reports that fuel was released into the Tanana when the DC-4 went down at a site next to the river west of Fairbanks.
“That is our concern,” says Kimberley Maher, the on-scene coordinator with DEC’s Division of Spill Prevention and Response. She said in an interview Tuesday afternoon that the agency hasn’t been able to confirm how much and what types of fuel was released.
“According to the Trooper report,” she said, “there is fuel that was released into the river, but at this time, we haven’t really been able to assess a volume of that.”
Clint Johnson chief of the National Transportation Safety Board’s Alaska office, said Tuesday that he also had gotten reports of a fuel spill caused by the crash.
“We’re assuming that there was a load of fuel onboard,” he said, “We don’t know that for sure, but there was a significant post-crash fire.”
Today, Johnson confirmed the plane was carrying 3,200 gallons of fuel oil.
Maher said one account she got states that aviation fuel, also known as av-gas, was released into the water and possibly on land.
“Some of the fuel might have been burned,” she said. “But some of it may be on the ground and some maybe in the river.”
She says Spill Prevention and Response Division specialists need to gather more information about the plane and its cargo. And to examine the crash site and collect more data.
“We’re still collecting information, because we haven’t really gotten very good photos, or we don’t have the GPS location of the incident,” she said.
Maher says DEC staff is working with the state departments of Natural Resources and Fish and Game, and with her federal Environmental Protection Agency counterparts to understand more about how a fuel spill would affect that area. And how to clean it up.
“At this time, we don’t have any cleanup plans being formulated,” she said, “because we’re still waiting on details of the incident.”
Maher says she hopes to have a better handle on the spill and its impact by the end of the week.
Editor's note: This story has been updated.
