The bodies of the five people who died last week in a Yute Commuter Service plane crash near the community of Tuntutuliak are in Anchorage.
The names of the four passengers from the coastal community of Kipnuk have yet to be released, but Yute Commuter Service identified the pilot as Tony Matthews.
The recovery effort took multiple agencies two days, working outside in severe wind chill. KYUK talked with two of the responders who were there. It’s always the hope that when searchers go out, it’s for a rescue, not a recovery, said Carl Andrew, who has volunteered with Tuntutuliak Search and Rescue for 38 years. When he responded to the plane crash on Thursday, it wasn’t his first.
“Well, we were prepared with our equipment to hopefully deal with survivors. As we all know by now with all the releases, the news, the reports, there were no survivors,” Andrew said.