As authorities investigate what led a commuter plane carrying 10 people — nine passengers and a pilot — to crash, leaving no survivors off the coast of Alaska, two people aboard the turboprop aircraft have been identified.
Rhone Baumgartner and Kameron Hartvigson 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 identities of the others killed in the crash have not yet been released.
According to a Facebook post by the Nome Volunteer Fire Department, officials were using a break in the weather Saturday “to bring Bering Air passengers and crew home today.”
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 U.S. Coast Guard on Friday found the wreckage of the plane on sea ice about 30 miles southeast of Nome. It will later be removed from the water by a Black Hawk helicopter.
Coast Guard officials confirmed three bodies were found inside the aircraft but did not release their identities. All the passengers were adults.
“The remaining 7 people are believed to be inside the aircraft but are currently inaccessible due to the condition of the plane,” USCG Alaska wrote in a social media post. “Our heartfelt condolences are with those affected by this tragic incident.”
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.
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, bound for Nome, 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.
The Bering Air plane vanished Thursday afternoon while traveling to Nome in Alaska. (Fox News)
No messages or distress signals were relayed, the AP reported.
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 with other plane crash investigations 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)
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.
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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.
In an email to Fox News Digital Saturday afternoon, the Alaska Department of Public Safety said it is “not releasing the names of anyone involved in the incident until after positive identification is completed.”
Fox News Digital’s Brie Stimson, Greg Norman, Christina Shaw and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
