Alaska plane crash updates: Bodies of all 10 victims recovered, identified

A search for a missing plane carrying ten people has ended with the discovery of wreckage in Alaska and recovery of all the victims' bodies.

Alaska Department of Public Safety, in a news release 2:30 p.m. local time Saturday, said all the bodies have been recovered and taken to Nome where they were identified by Alaska State Troopers.

"The bodies will now be transported to the State Medical Examiner's Office in Anchorage for autopsies," the news release said, adding the next of kin has been notified.

The Cessna 208B Grand Caravan aircraft operated by Bering Air dropped off the radar on Thursday afternoon after experiencing a rapid loss of altitude and speed over the Norton Sound on the western coast of Alaska, Lt. Benjamin McIntyre-Coble with the U.S. Coast Guard had said Friday.

A massive search over land and sea by state and federal agencies lasted for the next day in challenging weather conditions before officials said Friday that they discovered the mangled plane over ice 34 miles from Nome, where the plane was supposed to land on Thursday.

Victims in the crash identified

Following recovery efforts, all bodies were recovered and identified Saturday. The crash victims were:

• Chad Antill, 34, of Nome (Pilot)

• Liane Ryan, 52 of Wasilla

• Donnell Erickson, 58, of Nome

• Andrew Gonzalez, 30, of Wasilla

• Kameron Hartvigson, 41, of Anchorage

• Rhone Baumgartner, 46, of Anchorage

• Jadee Moncur, 52 of Eagle River

• Ian Hofmann, 45, of Anchorage

• Talaluk Katchatag, 34, of Unalakleet

• Carol Mooers, 48, of Unalakleet

Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium said two of the victims, Rhone Baumgartner and Kameron Hartvigson, were employees of the organization. They had traveled to Unalakleet to service a heat recovery system for the community's water plant, the ANTHC said in a statement to USA TODAY.

"We have a very close team here at ANTHC’s Division of Environmental Health and Engineering, and we experienced the unthinkable today. Our thoughts and prayers are with Kameron and Rhone’s families and all others who have experienced the pain of this tragedy," David Beveridge, ANTHC vice president of environmental health and engineering, said.

"Our work doesn’t always make the front page of the newspaper. Kameron and Rhone didn’t seek that sort of notoriety. They were motivated by a deep commitment to our mission. They had the skills to help people across Alaska and the devotion to do so under any conditions. These two members of our team lost their lives serving others."

Alaska State Trooper Lt. Ben Endres in Friday afternoon news conference had said that all occupants were adults on a regularly scheduled commuter flight.

'The crash was not survivable'

Earlier Saturday, crews they were working on recovering the victims while weather conditions held. A winter weather advisory was ahead for the Nome area overnight and forecasters said there would be areas of blowing snow starting in the afternoon. Wind chill made for a temperature that feels about 6 degrees Saturday.

Search crews found three people dead amid the wreckage and presumed the other seven were also dead but they were inaccessible because of the condition of the plane, the Coast Guard said. Recovery efforts were paused with the loss of daylight on Friday and resumed Saturday, according to the Nome Volunteer Fire Department.

"From reports we have received, the crash was not survivable. Our thoughts are with the families at this time," the fire department said.

The latest crash comes as U.S. air travel faces increased scrutiny following the collision of a passenger plane and a military helicopter outside Washington, D.C., that killed 67 people and the fatal crash of a Medevac jet in Philadelphia that killed seven people and injured more than 20 others.

What to know about the plane, area it went missing

The aircraft was operating between parts of the state that aren't accessible by land vehicles and roads. It was traveling from Unalakleet, Alaska, to Nome, Alaska, a flight that should take less than an hour. Here's what to know about the area and the plane:

The plane's location: According to live flight-tracking website FlightRadar24, the plane’s last known position before it went missing was over the water, 38 minutes after leaving Unalakleet.

Bering Air: Bering Air is a family-owned airline headquartered in Nome. Its website says it’s been operating since 1979 and offers scheduled regional service, charter flights and cargo transport. That includes scheduled service to both Nome and Unalakleet, which are about 150 miles apart in western Alaska, by the Bering Sea. It operates planes and helicopters.

Nome, Alaska: Nome is famous for being a gold rush town and the end of the Iditarod Sled Dog Race. The city of roughly 3,700 people is only accessible by dog sled, snowmobile, water and plane, according to the Nome Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Unalakleet, Alaska: Travel Alaska’s website describes Unalakleet as the southernmost I?upiaq village in Alaska. It has a population of around 800 people. The village is only accessible by plane, according to the Bureau of Land Management.

Plane model: The missing plane was a Cessna 208B Grand Caravan EX with tail number N321BA, according to FlightRadar24. Cessna’s website says, “The Grand Caravan? EX turboprop was engineered for challenging missions, high payloads and short, rough runways while delivering single-engine economy and simplicity.”

-Eve Chen

Weather, poor visibility complicated search

The Coast Guard said it wasn't yet known what caused the plane to lose altitude and speed on Thursday. Results of a full investigation may not be revealed for some time.

Though officials can't say for sure what happened, McIntyre-Coble with the Coast Guard noted that weather conditions were not ideal when the plane vanished. One Alaska National Guard helicopter helping in the search was unable to reach the area on Thursday because of poor weather, he said.

It was about 3 degrees in the air, and the water was about 29 degrees, McIntyre-Coble said Friday.

"Hypothermia and cold-water shock are a major concern for first responders and officials working on search and rescue operations near or on the water," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Tom Kines said.

Snow and freezing fog were reported in the plane's flight path on Thursday, with visibility between 1 and 7 miles where it departed and half-a-mile to 8 miles where it was supposed to land, Kines said.

How could a plane go missing?

Though aerial incidents involving fatalities are rare, smaller accidents happen frequently throughout the country, and sometimes aircraft stop sending signals about where they are, said aviation attorney and former Air Force navigator Jim Brauchle.

"When the communication is gone and they can't identify where the aircraft is or talk to somebody on the radio, then that's how they'll classify the aircraft as missing," Brauchle said.

How does an airplane go missing? A look at the disappearance of Alaska flight.

That's a less frequent problem today thanks to technology called Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast, or ADS-B, which is required on all aircraft and broadcasts location data to air traffic controllers. Still, "it happens," Brauchle said.

Airplanes fly with a transponder, which sends continuous data on its current altitude, airspeed, latitude and longitude to receivers on the ground. If the the transponder stops sending signals, it could be because of an electrical failure or a problem with the transmitter itself, Brauchle said.

In Alaska, many people get around on small planes, and the state has a disproportionately high number of accidents compared to the rest of the country, according to the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health.

This story was updated to add new information.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Victims of Alaska plane crash recovered, identified