WASHINGTON - A plane crash in the US state of South Dakota killed nine people, including two children, and injured three others on Saturday while a winter storm warning was in place, officials said.
The Pilatus PC-12, a single-engine turboprop plane, crashed shortly after takeoff approximately a mile from the Chamberlain Municipal Airport, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, or FAA.
Among the dead was the plane's pilot, said Brule County state's attorney Theresa Maule Rossow. A total of 12 people had been on board.
The three survivors had been taken to the hospital in Sioux Falls, she told US media.
The flight left the airport just before noon local time, with a destination of Idaho Falls Regional Airport in the western state of Idaho.
The FAA said investigators were en route to the crash site. A tweet from the National Transportation Safety Board said its officials would be "investigating today's crash of Pilatus PC-12 near Chamberlain, SD".
South Dakota is located in the Northern Plains, a region facing blizzard conditions as a storm blows eastward across the United States.
Storm warning
A winter storm warning remains in effect in Brule County until midday Sunday, the National Weather Service said, potentially including blowing snow that "could significantly reduce visibility".
"The men and women of law enforcement, first responders and medical professionals should be commended in their heroic actions to rescue the victims in extreme weather conditions," the state's attorney office said.
At Denver International Airport, 100 flights were canceled on Saturday due to high winds.
"Tomorrow, the airlines anticipate to be the busiest travel day of the Thanksgiving period at both O'Hare and Midway," said Karen Pride, a spokeswoman for the Chicago Department of Aviation in the Midwestern state of Illinois.
"Everybody thinks the day before Thanksgiving is the busiest; it is not," she said.
Meanwhile, the National Weather Service said a storm was expected to dump between 15 and 30 centimeters of snow on the northern Plains states of Minnesota and Wisconsin and on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
Blizzard conditions early on Saturday were already buffeting the High Plains. The city of Duluth, Minnesota, issued a "no travel advisory" beginning at noon Saturday because of a major snowstorm it termed "historic."
Duluth officials asked the public to be patient as plows clear roadways and recommended that drivers stay off the roads to prevent accidents and let officers respond more quickly to emergencies.
Forecasters said a new storm is expected to bring California several feet of mountain snow, rain and gusty winds through the weekend. Another system is forecast to develop in the mid-Atlantic Ocean on Sunday, evolving on Monday into a nor'easter - a storm blowing from the northeast.
In northern Montana, more than a foot of fresh snow and strong wind gusts are expected to combine to create ground blizzard conditions along the Rocky Mountain front.
Meteorologist Christian Cassel told the Great Falls Tribune newspaper that people could be stuck in their homes for at least a day due to the near-zero visibility.
AFP - AP
