Yeah from the looks of the wreckage my guess would be icing, stall, flat spin. Add disorientation in IFR conditions once the spin started.

Really a sad situation .

Crews are trying to recover the aircraft or as much as they can. Weather and moving ice is preventing that so far. Interesting aspect is deicing. Pretty sure that aircraft had the TKS system. It oozes an anti ice fluid to PREVENT icing. Different than the rubber boots that remove icing. The fluid is also used to keep the prop clean. The caravan also has a good auto pilot.
Pressurized aircraft can usually climb out of icing conditions. Caravans aren't pressurized.

I was wondering how fast the fuselage was building ice while fuel weight was burning off............moving the CG aft and inducing the stall.

Update Time:

Sorry it's been a while folks. I've been pretty busy editing videos and catching up with some work back home. The Iditarod trail breaking trip went well, we laid out a decent trail. Turns out that the Iditarod announces the moving of the start of the race to Fairbanks so they will not be using the trail we put in. At least the trip wasn't a total waste, we had gotten rid of a ton of deadfall that was blocking the trail. The area is like a matchstick with lots of standing dead trees due to beetle kill. It's gonna be a rough few years keeping the trail clear from deadfall.

Alright lets talk about trapping now. I returned from my trip 2 days later than planned so my traps soaked a littler longer than I wanted. I checked last Wednesday, the day I arrived back home and picked up a handful of marten and a red fox that went for a milk crate 330 set. An interesting thing happened on one of my marten sets. I pulled up to a box with the trap set off, the screen on the top was peeled up and my bait was missing. I can see old marten tracks around the set with no sign of bigger animals. There was a little fur on the trap jaws on both sides and below it, a marten tail no blood. I was thinking that marten had stole my bait from up top and curled his tail into the bottom where it met my ldl 120. It's hard to tell if the tail came off quickly or if there was a struggle but I know one thing. There's a tailess marten running around Egavik somewhere. Things have sure slowed down and I know I'll be snapping marten sets soon. No sign of pelts losing prime yet though.

Last check was on Sunday. I spent a good while on the line that day and put in some more wolverine sets and a little wolf bait in the creek valley where a young wolf has been galavanting among my line. A fish and game moose survey was being conducted and a super cub was flying around all day and flew by pretty close to me on a few occasions at different locations on the line. Things had not picked up and I only picked up a couple marten. Slowly but surely creeping up to my marten goal for the year. I have been keeping my eyes out for muskox as well because some hunters around here that have tags have been curious. I ended up seeing a couple herds that day.

Next day I took my buddy, a teacher from Texas, out to fill his musk ox tag. I had planned on going to the bigger herd I saw the day before but there was a steep drifted hill we could not pass. We ended up on a different ridge heading towards the other herd I saw. We ran into a smaller herd of all bulls that I hadn't seen before and it was a perfect herd to hunt. Wind was blowing 30 on top the hill as we got into position to pick off a bull. Hunt was a success and we were able to bring the musk ox down to a wind sheltered area to butcher his catch. It is his first musk ox and will be given away per tradition in this area.

I have videos out for the trail breaking and my past two trap checks on youtube. Here is the link to my channel if you want to watch this content:

My YouTube Channel

I videoed some of the musk ox hunt and will be editing and uploading soon.

Update Time:

Just ran the line yesterday, and cleaned up some sets a little. There has been no new sign and I have skunked this check. Ermines are running around it looks like and it looks like I'll be starting to snap marten sets this weekend. It has been blowing pretty hard since my last check and I'm thinking that might have some to do with the lack of activity in the area. I'm hoping for some big fur to start moving more now that mating is taking place. My brother had set some wolf gear on the musk ox gutpile yesterday, there was sign of a small pack in the area so it looks like he might have a good chance at a wolf or two. I just uploaded my video for this check on the channel. Although I skunked it made a decent video of the the beautiful day. Planning on doing some caribou hunting hopefully sometime within the next couple weeks.

Where/how far you gonna have to go to get bou? Granite? Maybe stop by the hot springs?

Man I wish they were around there! Hasn't been that way for years. I've been going by Bendeleben and Imuruk lake country. Also by the head of North Fork of Koyuk East Fork. Can do day trips to North Fork but I don't think the caribou have gone that far south yet.

Seen pics of large numbers at Noorvik! Don't you have relatives there? Maybe between buckland/Selawik, alright!

Yup lots around Noorvik. I do have family there. I haven't been up that way in a while. Looks like maybe this week will be a good week to look around.

Update time:

Sorry guys been a while. I made a couple trapping trips the past week. The last trip I had packed some marten boxes and sprung all the marten traps, officially ending my 24-25 marten season. I had one marten from the check before and two in the last hoorah. It has been an amazing marten season for me and I really have learned a lot. I ended up with 99 for my season, which is my best. Before this year I didn't really have a true marten line, I would mostly run wolverine gear and pick a few up here and there.The area I trapped has not been trapped hard for marten in years. I took advantage of the opportunity and had some good trapping in the early part of the season. I only planned on trapping just that section along North River where Junie would trap before, but I got ambitious and around the middle of the season I made a trail north into the hills and into the next drainage. It was a great move, I started seeing good numbers again while heading North. I'm still working on plans for next season and they may involve pulling marten gear sooner and focusing on a big fur line where I had been trapping in prior years. Things are still up in the air though and plans can change. I plan to select some of my marten fur to keep, tan, and sew into hats. The other's I will send out to my buyer. If all goes well tanning the marten I will start tanning my wolverine and lynx also. I'll still be trapping wolverine and wolf throughout the month. It's been very slow on the big fur for me his season so I probably won't make any more trapping posts unless I get some catches.

My YouTube channel is still alive and well despite many other trapping channels that are being shut down. I believe it may just be a matter of time until they shut me down. If that day comes I may no longer be able to post trapping videos. I will, however be making other content on my subsistence and outdoor oriented life here in bush Alaska. It seems like no one has been able to fight this unjust reasoning to shut down trapping content. YouTube tells the channel that they have violated their policy and will demonetize them immediately without giving them a reason. It really is a sad situation. With that being said here's the link to my channel: Chiroskey Outdoors. Watch some trapping content while you can, It may not last long.

Some memories of my 24-25 trapping season:

It has been fun following your adventures on here and YouTube. I appreciate you taking the time to put both together. It gives some of us the adventure we may never get!