Search crews on Saturday braved frigid temperatures and unstable sea ice as they worked to recover the remaining victims of a plane crash off the coast of western Alaska, racing to retrieve the wreckage before the region is walloped with snow and strong winds.
The Cessna aircraft, a single-engine turboprop operated by Bering Air, departed from Unalakleet on Thursday around 2:30 p.m., Alaska’s Department of Public Safety said. It was carrying 10 passengers nearly 150 miles over Norton Sound, to the city of Nome, when air traffic controllers lost contact with the plane less than an hour after takeoff.
The plane was located Friday after an extensive search, crashed on the sea ice some 30 miles southeast of its destination. All 10 people onboard, including the pilot, were presumed dead.
Search crews had so far been able to locate three bodies in the wreckage, though they’ve struggled to access the remaining seven victims due to the condition of the plane, the Coast Guard said.
A photo of the wreckage showed the plane’s splintered body and debris scattered across the ice.
Among those killed in the crash were Rhone Baumgartner and Kameron Hartvigson, who had traveled to Unalakleet to service a heat-recovery system vital to the community’s water plant, according to the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium.
“These two members of our team lost their lives serving others,” David Beveridge, the vice president of environmental health and engineering for the organization, said in a statement. “The loss of these two incredible individuals and everyone else onboard the plane will be felt all over Alaska.”
No other names have been released, but authorities have said all of the victims were adults.
The crash marked one of the deadliest in Alaska in the last 25 years, and investigators on Saturday were still working to understand its cause.
Radar forensic data provided by the U.S. Civil Air Patrol indicated that around 3:18 p.m., the plane had “some kind of event which caused them to experience a rapid loss in elevation and a rapid loss in speed,” Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Benjamin McIntyre-Coble said. “What that event is, I can’t speculate to.”
A winter weather advisory is now in effect for Nome and other parts of western Alaska until 9 p.m. Sunday, with blowing snow and gusting winds that could “significantly reduce visibility,” the National Weather Service said.
With News Wire Services
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