Bangor International Airport is set to reopen at noon Thursday.
That comes days after a business jet carrying six people crashed during takeoff Sunday night, killing everyone on board.
Officials haven’t publicly identified the dead, whose bodies remained in the plane Wednesday, but family and friends have identified five of the six dead as event planner Shawna Collins, attorney Tara Arnold, private chef Nick Mastrascusa, sommelier Shelby Kuyawa and pilot Jacob Hosmer.
The passengers, who were on their way to France from Texas, worked for a luxury travel company, Beyond, founded by Arnold and her husband, Kurt, a co-founder of the Texas law firm Arnold & Itkin.
Neither Kurt Arnold nor the firm’s other founder, Jason Itkin, was aboard the plane, local media reported in Texas.
Details are still scant, but we know that the fixed-wing, multi-engine Bombardier Challenger 600 crashed about 7:45 p.m. Sunday shortly after takeoff, ended up upside down and then caught on fire.
An airport spokesperson disputed an earlier count from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration that listed seven dead from the crash and one survivor. All aboard are presumed dead.
The plane was registered to Houston-based KTKJ Challenger LLC, which is associated with the personal injury law firm Arnold & Itkin.
Sunday’s fatal crash comes just months after the August crash of a single-engine Cessna A185F that left 74-year-old Italian aviator Luigi Accusani dead, making it the second fatal civilian aviation disaster in Bangor and the third ever in the Queen City. A Sept. 17, 1944, military plane crash left its two-man crew dead in Bangor.
Investigators with the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board began arriving in the Queen City on Tuesday. They have been seen working on the wreckage, which remained on the runway covered in ice, snow and firefighting foam Wednesday.
