Nando Times

The Associated Press

LINNEUS, Maine (July 19, 2000 9:31 a.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) - A plane carrying Canadian mail crashed and exploded in flames early Wednesday in a wooded area of northern Maine. Both people aboard the plane were killed.

The twin-engine Gulfstream operated by Airwave Transport crashed at about 12:30 a.m. Wednesday, said Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Public Safety Department.

The only part of the plane that was recognizable after the fire was an engine, which ended up in a river, McCausland said. Other parts of the plane were scattered in a nearby field.

The names of the pilot and co-pilot were not immediately released. No one on the ground was hurt.

Medical examiners were on the scene Wednesday morning to begin recovering the victims' remains. Investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board were headed to the scene.

The plane began its journey in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and took on more mail in Moncton, New Brunswick, McCausland said. It was headed toward scheduled stops in Toronto and Montreal when it crashed.

It was unclear why the plane went down. There was stormy weather Tuesday night in Maine, but there were no storms in the area at the time of the crash, according to the National Weather Service.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), July 19, 2000