All 10 people aboard a small plane that went missing and was later discovered crashed in Alaska have been confirmed dead, officials said in a statement.
The Alaska Department of Public Safety said Saturday that all aboard the plane — nine passengers and one pilot — died. The plane had been traveling from Unalakleet to Nome on Thursday when it went missing. It was found crashed on Friday.
The Alaska State Troopers positively identified all 10 victims on the plane after they were recovered and brought to Nome, Alaska DPS said in a statement.
The dead were identified as pilot Chad Antill, 34, of Nome; 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; and Carol Mooers, 48; of Unalakleet.
At a news conference earlier Saturday, National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy said the first priority of recovery efforts was recovering the victims. Then, the NTSB — which was investigating the crash — and responding agencies would work on recovering the wreckage.
Three people were found dead inside the wreckage of the plane Friday, the U.S. Coast Guard said. The agency said at the time that the seven others who were on the plane were “believed to be inside the aircraft, which was inaccessible due to the condition of the plane.”
“The Coast Guard determined the severity of the wreckage was beyond the possibility of survival,” it said Friday.
Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium said in a statement that two of its employees, Baumgartner and Hartvigson, died in the crash. The company said the pair had traveled to Unalakleet “to service a heat recovery system that is critical to the community’s water plant.”
Officials have said the Bering Air Cessna Caravan took off from Unalakleet, on the east coast of Norton Sound in western Alaska, and was headed to Nome around 140 miles away.
The plane took off at 2:37 p.m. Thursday, Bering Air Director of Operations David Olson told NBC affiliate KTUU of Anchorage.
At around 3:18 p.m., radar analysis showed “this aircraft experienced 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 at a news briefing Friday.
The wreckage was found about 34 miles southeast of Nome, the Coast Guard said. The three bodies recovered Friday were found in the forward part of the aircraft by two Coast Guard swimmers, the agency said.
The Nome Volunteer Fire Department, with assistance from the Alaska National Guard, said Friday it activated its search and rescue team for the recovery effort.
Nome and Unalakleet are not serviced by the state’s highway system. Air and water or snowmobile and trails are the main forms of transport between the two.
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy said Friday that he and his wife, Rose, “are heartbroken by the loss of the 10 people on the Bering Air flight” and said their “prayers are with the families, friends, and communities mourning this tragedy.”
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, thanked all those who responded and braved the elements to search for the plane, and said Friday that “my heart is broken over the news out of Nome.”
“Alaska is a big small town,” she said. “When tragedy strikes, we’re never far removed from the Alaskans directly impacted. But that also means we come together as a community to grieve and heal.”
