Bodies removed after jet crash kills 18 in US
Coroner's officials have begun removing bodies after a chartered executive jet crashed into a hillside in a US ski resort.
Eighteen people died after the Gulfstream III fell apart as it dived across a culvert and struck a hill just short of an airport runway in Aspen, Colorado.
Pitkin County Sheriff Bob Braudis said it could be two days before the bodies are identified.
The California-based charter company specialises in flying showbiz clients but Mr Braudis said he did not recognise any of the passengers' names.
Arnold Scott of the National Transportation Safety Board said the cockpit voice recorder had been recovered. Before the crash, the plane's crew told controllers they had the runway in sight, he said.
Wreckage and bodies were strewn across the crash site. Two dead passengers were still strapped to their seats and one was sprawled on a hillside.
There were no distress calls before the crash, said Marie Munday, a spokeswoman for the County Sheriff's Office. All 18 bodies were recovered, she said.
The twin-engined jet left Burbank, California, and stopped in Los Angeles before departing for Aspen. Fifteen passengers and three crew were on board, said Allen Kenitzer, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman in Seattle.
The National Weather Service reported light snow in the area at the time of the crash. Visibility went from 10 miles to less than two miles in about 20 minutes just before the crash, forecasters said.
Firefighters said there was a small fire when they arrived. Debris, including pieces of seats, insulation and the fuselage, was scattered for at least 300 feet.
