On Feb. 12, 2009, a Continental airlines turboprop commuter plane crashed into a house near Buffalo, N.Y., killing 50 people, including one person in the house.

The commuter flight that crashed on Alaska sea ice last week was part of the workhorse network of short-hop flights that people in the vast state rely on for routine.

Authorities are working to recover the wreckage of a plane crash in western Alaska that killed 10 people while investigators are trying to determine what caused the small commuter aircraft to go down in the icy Bering Sea.