Alaska plane crash: Remains of all 10 victims recovered, say authorities
Authorities said now that the bodies have been recovered, a Black Hawk helicopter will be used to move the wreckage of the single-engine aircraft.
The mortal remains of all 10 people killed in the crash of a regional single-engine airline flight on the Bering Sea in Alaska have been recovered, authorities said.
The turboprop plane, travelling from Unalakleet to the hub community of Nome, disappeared on Thursday afternoon. A day later, the wreckage of the plane was found by the recovery crews on an ice floe that was drifting about 5 miles (8 kilometers) a day.
The Nome Volunteer Fire Department announced on Facebook on Saturday afternoon, "All ten individuals aboard the Bering Air plane have been officially brought home," adding that the crews were still working on recovering the aircraft.
Officials said that a Black Hawk helicopter will be deployed to move the aircraft now that the bodies have been recovered as well.
The flight's crash into the icy sea turned out to be one of the deadliest plane crashes in the state in 25 years. And as the recovery crews worked towards safely removing the aircraft, the National Weather Service issued a winter weather advisory.
The advisory said that snow and winds up to 45 miles per hours (72 kilometers per hour) expected to hit the region on Saturday night (local time), lasting into Sunday evening.
The pilot of the plane, 34-year-old Chad Antill of Nome, was also killed in the deadly crash, with other victims aging from 30-58 years of age.
Nome is just south of the Arctic Circle and is known as the ending point of the 1,000-mile Iditarod.
Meanwhile, the National Transportation Safety Board said that it was sending people from various states to investigate the crash. As per the US Coast Guard, the radar data provided by the US Civil Air Patrol suggested that the plane rapidly lost elevation and speed, but it remained unclear as to why it happened.
Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Benjamin McIntyre-Coble said he was not aware of any distress signals from the aircraft. This is in reference to the system that if a plane is exposed to seawater, an emergency locating transmitter sends a signal to a satellite, which then relays that message to the Coast Guard.
The plane crash in Alaska marked the third major aviation mishap for the US in eight days. Earlier, a medical transportation plane crashed in Philadelphia on January 31, killing all six people on board and another on ground. On January 29, a commercial jetliner and an Army helicopter collided near the nation's capital, killing 67 people.
(with AP inputs)