Commuter plane crash on Alaska island critically injures 2

A commuter airplane carrying 42 people, including a high school swim team, went off the runway while landing Thursday at a small Alaska community on the Bering Sea.

Peninsula Airways said in a statement that two passengers were critically injured and 10 others were receiving medical care.

A school official said the swim team was fine and eating pizza shortly after the incident about 5:40 pm at the airport in Unalaska in the Aleutian Islands.

Unalaska is home to Dutch Harbor, one of the nation's busiest fishing ports.

A SAAB-Scania 2000 operated by Peninsula Airways, or PenAir, went off the end of the runway under unknown circumstances, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Allen Kenitzer said in an email to The Associated Press.

He said local authorities reported three crew members on board in addition to 38 passengers, but the airline said 39 passengers were on board.

The Unalaska police department was not taking calling from the media.

Clint Johnson, head of the Alaska region of the National Transportation Safety Board, didn't return messages left on his cellphone Thursday.

However, he told Anchorage television station KTUU that he could not immediately say whether anyone died in the crash, citing the need for better investigation of the crash site hundreds of miles from Anchorage.

"We've got a major investigation going here, and there's all sorts of rumors going around," he said.

"We're trying to get an investigator down, and the rest of the team will be coming from Washington, DC."