Eight people, all passengers and crew members on board, are believed to have died after two planes collided in midair and crashed into a lake in Idaho on Sunday afternoon, police said.
“There are currently believed to be no survivors,” Lt. Ryan Higgins of the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. At least two people were pronounced dead at the scene, he said.
Lt. Higgins said the two planes hit each other and then crashed into Lake Coeur d’Alene, near Powderhorn Bay, sometime after 2 pm There was a “pretty bad oil slick” at the scene after of the accident, Lt. Higgins said, according to KREM, a local store.
Both planes have been located by the sonar team at the sheriff’s office, according to Lt. Higgins. They were in 127 feet of water, he said.
Ian Gregor, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said in a statement that one of the planes was a Cessna 206. He did not describe the other plane.
It was not immediately clear what might have led to the accident. Lt. Higgins said an investigation was underway and that the National Transportation Safety Board had been notified.
The sheriff’s office did not immediately respond to messages that were left Sunday night.
