Authorities are searching for the bodies of a plane crashed off the coast of North Carolina that was carrying eight people this weekend.
One person has been identified, but officials are still in the process of finding the remains of other passengers, Carteret County Sheriff Asa Buck said at a press conference Monday.
“There is no indication that anyone survived the crash,” he said
A single-engine Pilatus PC-12 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday.
The Coast Guard responded that night after receiving a report from the air traffic controller that the plane appeared to be misbehaving on the radar and disappeared on the radar screen, according to a news release.
Sheriff’s Department, National Park Service beach staff, Towboat U.S. and the Down East Fire Department are also involved in recovery efforts.
However, the search has been hampered by the fact that debris is being transported to sea.
“That search and recovery went on late, until dawn,” Buck said. “And this morning, many organizations came back and found a garbage dump that had moved overseas – 5, 10, 15 miles miles offshore.”
Buck noted that there are three different areas of waste now.
“We are also currently in the process of acquiring a large airline, fuselage, in an effort to secure that part of the aircraft and to continue to find passengers on the aircraft,” he said. .
A Coast Guard spokesman said “ships as far away as Cape May, New Jersey,” were busy searching.