WHITE PASS, Wash. -- There are no survivors in the crash of a plane near White Pass, Yakima County Sheriff Ken Irwin said at a news conference Tuesday morning.

Irwin said it appears the plane carrying nine skydivers and the pilot crashed nearly straight down.

VIDEO: Devastating Loss In Snohomish

Searchers Tuesday morning went back into woods near White Pass to recover bodies from the crash.

Searches are still looking for three other bodies and the tail section of the plane.

"I'm told it was a horrific sight and the airplane crashed at a fairly high speed," said Jim Hall, director of Yakima Valley Emergency Management. "It appears that no one survived that crash."

The passengers and pilot were not immediately identified.

A National Transportation Safety Board investigation was expected to begin Tuesday, Hall said.

The wreckage was found about 7:40 p.m. Monday and searchers were able to verify by serial number that it was the missing aircraft. The tail section was separated from the rest of the plane and was not immediately located, said Tina Wilson of Emergency Management.

The Cessna 208 Grand Caravan left Star, Idaho, near Boise, on Sunday evening en route to Shelton, but did not arrive.

The plane had been returning from a skydiving meet in Idaho when it disappeared.

Members of Tacoma Mountain Rescue were among about 25 volunteers still searching after dark Monday in the area where the plane was believed to have gone down.

Based on radar transmissions and a hunter's report of seeing a plane flying low Sunday evening and then hearing a crash, the search was focused on a steep, densely forested area near White Pass, about 45 miles west of Yakima.

Search crews concentrated on a relatively small area of 5-10 square miles along the north fork of the Tieton River.

Six fixed-wing aircraft, the Air Force helicopter and a King County helicopter had searched all day Monday, said Tom Peterson, aviation and emergency services coordinator for the state Department of Transportation. The Air Force chopper flew for a while Monday evening but then was required to land because of a 12-hour duty limit for its crew members, he said.

The Transportation Department handled the air search while Yakima County coordinated the ground search.

One man at a Red Cross center at White Pass said earlier Monday that his 30-year-old son was aboard the plane. He displayed a family photo of the young man skydiving with a brother and sister.

"He worked hard and he played hard -- we just want to find him," said the father, who did not give his name.

Elaine Harvey, co-owner of the skydiving company Skydive Snohomish, told The Seattle Times that nine of the 10 aboard were either employees of her business or else licensed skydivers who considered Snohomish their "home drop zone." Skydive Snohomish operates a training school and offers skydiving flights at Harvey Field in Snohomish County, about 20 miles north of Seattle.

Skydive Snohomish had nothing to do with the flight to Idaho or the event held there, Harvey said.

"These people were beloved friends," she told the Yakima Herald-Republic.

The plane was registered to Kapowsin Air Sports of Shelton.

The family-owned company had never lost a plane, Geoff Farrington, Kapowsin's co-owner, said earlier Monday. The plane also had never experienced mechanical problems, he added.

The single-engine plane was built in 1994, according to Federal Aviation Administration records.