Alaska plane recovery efforts hindered by "difficult conditions," official says
Recovery efforts for the remaining victims inside an aircraft that went missing near Nome, Alaska, are being dampened by "difficult conditions," according to investigators.
The wreckage of the Bering Air Flight 445 is on an ice floe that's moving approximately 5 miles a day, National Transportation Safety Board chair Jennifer Homendy said at a news conference on Saturday. She added that the area where the Cessna 208 Caravan went down also is expecting some snow, which will hinder the complex operation.
"The NTSB knows that villages like Nome and Alaska aviation are tight-knit communities, so this tragedy affects so many," Homendy said. "Please know that we will work diligently to determine how this happened with the ultimate goal of improving safety here in Alaska and across the United States."
Homenday said victim recovery is the NTSB's primary focus, and second to that is recovering the Caravan wreckage. All 10 people, including the pilot, were believed to have died in the crash and three bodies have recovered. None of them have been identified.
The Coast Guard said Friday that other seven victims were believed to be inside the aircraft, but were "currently inaccessible due to the condition of the plane."
Investigators told CBS News transportation correspondent Kris Van Cleave on Saturday that the aircraft is not equipped with voice or data recorders as it is not a requirement. Following victim recovery, authorities will search for other avionic components that store electronic data which may help paint a clearer picture of what led to the crash.
The Bering Air Caravan that initially went missing on Feb. 6 on its way to Nome experienced a rapid loss in altitude and speed, prompting the Coast Guard to launch a search and rescue operation, officials said earlier.
It was the third major U.S. aviation incident in eight days. An American Eagle flight and Army Black Hawk helicopter collided and plunged into the Potomac River near Washington, D.C., on Jan. 29, killing all 67 people on the two aircraft. A medical transportation plane crashed in Philadelphia on Jan. 31, killing the six people on board and one more on the ground.
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