The remains of 10 people who were in a commuter plane that crashed off the coast of Alaska have been recovered, authorities said Saturday.
“All ten individuals aboard the Bering Air plane have been officially brought home,” the Nome Volunteer Fire Department wrote on Facebook.
Rhone Baumgartner, 46, and Kameron Hartvigson, 41, boarded the flight to Nome after traveling to Unalakleet to work on a heat recovery system servicing the community’s water plant, according to the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, The Associated Press reported.
The pilot killed in the crash has been identified as Chad Antill, 34, of Nome. The other victims, according to the Anchorage Daily News, were Liane Ryan, 52, of Wasilla; Donnell Erickson, 58, of Nome; Andrew Gonzalez, 30, of Wasilla; Jadee Moncur, 52, of Eagle River; Ian Hofmann, 45, of Anchorage; Talaluk Katchatag, 34, of Unalakleet, and Carol Mooers, 48, of Unalakleet.
A Bering Air plane similar to the one that crashed this week arrives in Ambler, Alaska, April 9, 2022. (Emily Mesner/Anchorage Daily News via AP)
The fire department said officials were using a break in the weather Saturday “to bring Bering Air passengers and crew home today.” Crews were still working on recovering the single-engine turboprop plane.
The plane was traveling from Unalakleet to Nome when it disappeared on Thursday. The U.S. Coast Guard found the wreckage of the plane the following day on sea ice about 30 miles southeast of Nome. It will later be removed from the water by a Black Hawk helicopter.
The Coast Guard determined the severity of the wreckage was beyond the possibility of survival but announced an “item of interest” related to the search was recovered.
This was one of the deadliest plane crashes in the state in 25 years.
U.S. Coast Guard rescue swimmers stand near the wreckage of a Bering Air plane Friday. (X/@USCGAlaska)
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The Bering Air commuter flight, which left Unalakleet at 2:37 p.m. Thursday, disappeared about 12 miles offshore, according to the Coast Guard. The flight was regularly scheduled.
Data from FlightRadar shows the Cessna 208B Grand Caravan EX last reported just after 3:15 p.m. local time Thursday over Norton Sound.
The Coast Guard said data showed a “rapid loss in elevation and rapid loss in speed” for the aircraft at 3:18 p.m. Thursday. However, authorities have not yet pinpointed why that happened.
“Please know that we’ll work diligently to determine how this happened with the ultimate goal of improving safety in Alaska and across the United States,” National Transportation Safety Board chair Jennifer Homendy said during a press conference Saturday afternoon.
The Bering Air plane vanished Thursday afternoon while traveling to Nome in Alaska. (Fox News)
No messages or distress signals were relayed.
The National Transportation Safety Board was sending nine people to the scene from various states.
The Federal Aviation Administration is providing an investigator from the Aviation Safety Office of Accident and Prevention, according to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.
He added the Department of Transportation will offer its full support, as other plane crash investigations remain in progress.
Ice in the Bering Sea as seen from a small plane near the western Alaska coast in 2020. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen, File)
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The Alaska crash was the third fatal U.S. plane collision in eight days.
A passenger plane and a Black Hawk helicopter crashed midair near Washington, D.C., Jan. 29, killing 67 people.
A medical plane carrying an ill child plummeted onto a Philadelphia street Jan. 31, killing all six on board and a bystander on the ground.
Fox News Digital’s Brie Stimson, Greg Norman, Christina Shaw and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
