Alaska plane crash: investigators hunt for clues

Even as the wreckage of a Cessna 208B Grand Caravan that crashed on Thursday, killing all 10 on board, drifts on a Bering Sea ice floe, authorities said they had recovered and identified the bodies of all the victims on Saturday. Time was of the essence as the ice floe, about 34 miles (54 km) out to sea near Nome, Alaska, was made of slushy ice and the weather was predicted to turn foul on Sunday, whipping up snow and 45 mph winds, officials said. "All ten individuals aboard the Bering Air plane have been officially brought home," the Nome Volunteer Fire Department said in a Facebook post on Saturday night. Recovery of the victims from the small commuter aircraft was made by a joint effort of the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Air Force and other agencies. Meanwhile, a crew of nine investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board arrived in Anchorage, Alaska, on Saturday to find out why it crashed. NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said the Cessna carrying nine passengers and one pilot was lost from radar contact about 3:30 p.m. local time on Thursday over the Bering Sea as it headed from Unalakleet, Alaska, to an airfield in Nome, about 100 miles south of the Arctic Circle. The Coast Guard found the wreckage late on Friday on an ice floe drifting about 5 miles a day at sea, officials said. "The priority is victim recovery. Then we will recover the wreckage," Homendy said at a press conference earlier on Saturday.<br/>