The bodies of three people were found in the wreckage of airplane on the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race route, SFGate.com reported Tuesday.
Authorities say the bodies of two adults and the body of a 10-year-old girl were found in the plane that had crashed Monday. The victims have been identified as Pilot Ted Smith, 59, Carolyn Sorvoja, 48, and Rosemarie Sorvoja, 10. They were all residents Anchorage.
The plane was headed to Takotna, nearly 250 miles northwest of Anchorage. The area where the plane went down was about a quarter of the way along the 1,000 mile Iditarod Trail. A Sorvoja family spokesman said the family was headed to Takotna to volunteer for the race.
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About two hours after the plane was reported overdue Monday afternoon, a search was launched which was coordinated by the Alaska Rescue Coordination Center. The search resumed on Tuesday morning with about 10 aircraft: a combination of military, state and private planes.
Aerial searchers spotted the plane late on Tuesday morning.
The Anchorage Daily News reports that rescuers were able to land a helicopter near the wreckage and confirmed finding the bodies of those three people who were reported to be on the plane.
The paper reports that Smith was an experienced pilot.
"While working for the Alaska Police Department, Smith moonlighted in the mid-2000s as a helicopter pilot for an Anchorage charter company, Security Aviation, which hoped to get into the lucrative commercial jet business and had brought several decommissioned Czech warplanes to Alaska," ADN reports.
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