The remains of the small aircraft that went missing while flying over Alaska were discovered on Friday on sea ice, with all 10 people aboard confirmed dead, authorities reported.
Mike Salerno, a spokesperson for the Coast Guard, explained that rescue teams found the plane using a helicopter as they combed the area around the aircraft’s last known coordinates. Two rescue swimmers were lowered to investigate the wreckage.
The two swimmers identified three bodies inside the plane, while seven others are believed to be inside the wreckage but could not be accessed due to the damage to the aircraft, according to the US Coast Guard Alaska in a statement posted on X.
The Cessna Caravan, which was carrying one pilot and nine passengers, departed from Unalakleet around 2:37 p.m. Thursday, en route to Nome, approximately 150 miles away. However, the plane lost contact with authorities less than an hour later.
Search teams are now working urgently to recover the wreckage, which was located 34 miles southeast of Nome, from the slushy sea ice before an impending storm arrives this weekend.
“The conditions out there are dynamic, so we’ve got to do it safely in the fastest way we can,” Jim West, the chief of the Nome Volunteer Fire Department, stated on Friday.
Officials also reported that the plane experienced a “rapid loss” of both speed and elevation just before it disappeared.
At around 3:18 p.m. on Thursday, the plane experienced an event that led to “a rapid loss in elevation and a rapid loss in speed,” according to US Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Benjamin McIntyre-Coble. “What that event is, I can’t speculate to,” he added before the wreckage was located.
The single-engine plane was at full capacity when it vanished over Alaska’s Norton Sound, the state Department of Public Safety confirmed.
Coast Guard officials indicated that the plane went missing approximately 30 miles southeast of Nome and about 12 miles offshore.
All nine passengers were adults, though their identities have not been made public.
This crash is the third major aviation disaster in the United States within a week.
Last Wednesday, a collision between an American Airlines flight and an Army helicopter near Washington, DC, resulted in the deaths of 67 people.
Two days later, a medical transport plane crashed in Philadelphia, killing six people aboard and another person on the ground.
{Matzav.com}