JUNEAU -- The wreckage of a sightseeing plane that crashed near Ketchikan last month, killing all nine people onboard, has been recovered.
Clint Johnson, chief of the Alaska regional office of the National Transportation Safety Board, says the wreckage was removed from the steep, rugged terrain over the weekend, loaded onto a barge and transported to a locked hangar at Ketchikan on Monday. The next step is for the investigation team to reconvene there.
The plane was carrying eight cruise ship passengers on a shore excursion to Misty Fjords National Monument near Ketchikan when it crashed June 25. The pilot also died.
Authorities had been waiting for a heavy-lift helicopter to become available to remove the wreckage.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation.