ANCHORAGE, ALASKA (AP) – Search and rescue divers in Alaska, United States (US) recovered the bodies of a helicopter pilot and three scientists on Sunday from the sunken wreckage of their aircraft, which went down in a shallow lake last week on the remote North Slope, authorities said.
The cause of the crash is under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
The only way to raise the wreckage will be to use another helicopter because it’s in the middle of one of the many lakes scattered across the vast tundra, said chief of the NTSB’s Alaska region Clint Johnson.
“In Alaska, during the fire season, commercial helicopters are at a premium. So we are having challenges getting a helicopter to do the work,” he said on Sunday.
The 1996 Bell 206 helicopter crashed on Thursday while transporting the Alaska Department of Natural Resources staff, who were members of the Division of Geological and Geophysical Survey, for a fieldwork in the area.
