Coast Guard finds wreckage of missing Alaska plane; all 10 on board killed

By Rich McKay and Brad Brooks

(Reuters) -The U.S. Coast Guard in Alaska found the wreckage of a small plane atop frozen sea ice on Friday, after the aircraft suddenly lost altitude on Thursday and the crash killed all 10 people on board, officials said.

Two U.S. Coast Guard rescue swimmers who reached the wreckage could see three bodies inside, and the other seven were presumed to be inside the wreckage, Coast Guard spokesperson Mike Salerno told a press conference.

"Unfortunately, it does not appear to be a survivable crash," Salerno said.

Clint Johnson, chief of the National Transportation Safety Board's Alaska office, told the same press conference that 10 were dead.

"Unfortunately now since the wreckage has been found and 10 fatalities, it's time for us to roll up our sleeves and go to work," Johnson said.

Harsh winter weather had impeded search efforts, and it may take hours or days to recover the bodies from the remote site, officials said.

The wreckage was discovered 34 miles (55 km) southeast of Nome, the Coast Guard said in a post that included a picture of the wreckage in the snow and the two members of the recovery team.

The Cessna 208B Grand Caravan aircraft carrying a pilot and nine adult passengers was reported missing en route from Unalakleet about 4 p.m. local time on Thursday, according to a dispatch posted on the website of the Alaska State Troopers in Nome, which is more than 500 miles (805 km) northwest of Anchorage.

The plane went missing about 12 miles (19 km) offshore over the icy waters of the Norton Sound, which is part of the Bering Sea, according to the Coast Guard.

Benjamin McIntyre-Coble, an officer with the Coast Guard in Alaska, has said the plane suffered a rapid loss of altitude and speed, according to radar data, but could offer no details on what may have caused that. Weather was wintry and poor in the area where the plane suddenly dropped, officials said.

The plane was operated by Bering Air and was making a 150-mile trip from Unalakleet to Nome, a regularly scheduled commuter flight that traverses the Norton Sound. Family of those on board have been notified, but no names have been released.

The incident comes at a time of heightened scrutiny of air safety in the United States. NTSB investigators are probing two deadly crashes in recent days: the midair collision of a passenger jet and U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter in Washington, D.C., that killed 67 people, and a medical jet crash in Philadelphia that killed seven.

(Reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta, Brad Brooks in Colorado, Daniel Trotta in Carlsbad, California, and Geraldine Downer in Mexico City; Editing by Frank McGurty, Marguerita Choy, Rosalba O'Brien and Shri Navaratnam)