JUNEAU, Alaska -- The commanding general of the Alaska Army National Guard and seven other Guardsmen were killed Thursday when their plane crashed while trying to land in bad weather.
The twin-engine Beechcraft C-12S was on final approach about 9 a.m. local time (1 p.m. EST) in snow and rain when it vanished from radar screens.
The plane was spotted in the Chilkat Mountains about five hours later. The fuselage was intact and there was no fire, but officials said all eight people aboard were dead.
Darkness and bad weather prevented crews from recovering the bodies until Friday.
Among the victims was Brig. Gen. Thomas C. Carroll, 44, Anchorage, commanding general of the state's Army National Guard. Two colonels and a command sergeant major were also among the dead.
The party was reportedly on a routine inspection trip to a facility in Juneau from Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, about 500 miles to the northwest.
Carroll, a member of the national advisory board of the Salvation Army, was the son of Thomas P. Carroll, Alaska's first National Guard adjutant general, who was killed in a plane crash in 1964.
