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BALDWIN COUNTY, Alabama — A tour bus packed with teens heading home from a high school trip plummeted off an Alabama interstate into a ravine — leaving at least one person dead and sending injured passengers to at least 10 hospitals.

 

The crash occurred on Interstate 10 around 20 miles east of Mobile at 5:30 a.m. local time, police said.

 

The vehicle was carrying around 45 people. Authorities said that 19 people were transported to two local hospitals, with patients also being taken to eight other facilities.

 

The bus ended up overturned about 50 feet down the ravine underneath a bridge, police said.

 

In addition to the fatality, one person was critically injured, and five others were listed in serious condition, Baldwin County Sheriff Huey Hoss Mack told reporters at a press conference. Several others suffered minor injuries.

 

At least six helicopters airlifted the injured from the scene.

 

The person killed was the driver of the bus, said Capt. John Malone, who commands state troopers in the Mobile district.

 

The vehicle was one of two buses chartered to transport members of Channelview High School Falcon Band back to Houston, Texas, a spokesman for the Channelview Independent School District confirmed.

 

The National Transportation Safety Board dispatched a six-person team to investigate the incident.

 

The second bus continued en route to Houston.