Crews reach sightseeing plane crash site in southeast Alaska

Improved weather conditions Wednesday allowed crews to access the site where a sightseeing plane crashed last week in southeast Alaska, killing six people.

Clint Johnson, head of the National Transportation Safety Board's Alaska division, said he was hopeful the wreckage could be returned to Ketchikan later Wednesday.

A pilot and five passengers died in the crash last Thursday. The passengers had reached the area bycruise ship and had taken the flight to nearby Misty Fjords National Monument.

The plane crashed on the side of a mountain in a rugged, steep area that is heavily forested, at about 549 metres to about 610 metres, Johnson has said.

The site is about 19kilometresnortheast of Ketchikan.

The bodies were recovered Saturday, but poor weather delayed retrieval of the plane. NTSB investigators have been working other aspects of the investigation.