The remains of all ten victims from a deadly regional airline crash in Alaska’s Bering Sea have been successfully recovered, officials confirmed. The single-engine turboprop aircraft, operated by Bering Air, was en route from Unalakleet to Nome when it vanished on Thursday afternoon.
Search teams located the wreckage a day later on an ice floe drifting at a speed of five miles (eight kilometers) per day. The Nome Volunteer Fire Department announced on Saturday that all passengers and crew members had been brought home, while efforts continue to recover the aircraft.
Aircraft Recovery Operation Underway
Authorities stated that a Black Hawk helicopter would be deployed to retrieve the remains of the aircraft following the recovery of the victims. The crash has been identified as one of Alaska’s deadliest aviation disasters in the past 25 years.
Complicating the recovery mission, the National Weather Service issued a winter storm advisory, warning of heavy snowfall and winds reaching up to 45 mph (72 km/h) in the area.
Investigation Underway as Cause Remains Unknown
The pilot, 34-year-old Chad Antill from Nome, was among those killed, along with passengers aged between 30 and 58. Nome, a city just south of the Arctic Circle, is best known as the final checkpoint of the iconic 1,000-mile Iditarod sled dog race.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has deployed investigators from multiple states to determine the cause of the crash. According to the US Coast Guard, radar data from the US Civil Air Patrol indicated that the aircraft experienced a rapid loss of speed and altitude before impact. However, no distress signals were detected from the plane’s emergency transmitter, which typically activates upon contact with seawater.
Third Major US Aviation Incident in Eight Days
This tragedy marks the third major aviation disaster in the US within just over a week. On January 31, a medical transport plane crashed in Philadelphia, killing six people, including one on the ground. Earlier, on January 29, a devastating collision between a commercial jetliner and an Army helicopter near Washington, D.C., resulted in 67 fatalities.
As investigations continue, authorities seek to determine what led to the fatal crash in Alaska’s harsh winter conditions.
