The debris was in Passage Canal, which leads into Whittier. The body of John Stumpff, 47, of Sterling appears to have been washed up on shore near the debris, said Megan Peters, trooper spokeswoman. He was the nurse aboard the flight.

Still missing: pilot Lance Brabham, 42, of Soldotna; paramedic Cameron Carter, 24, of Kenai and patient Gaye McDowell, 60, of Cordova.

Details were sketchy Saturday evening. Peters said troopers are trying to piece together what happened and that more information should come out on Sunday.

"This is by no means the end of the search effort. They are making arrangements and plans to see what needs to be done tomorrow," Peters said. Searchers were heading in Saturday evening and the effort will resume at first light Sunday, she said.

The debris is being turned over to the National Transportation Safety Board for an investigation into what went wrong.

The LifeGuard helicopter went missing about 40 minutes into a scheduled 90-minute flight between Cordova and Anchorage.

The Alaska Air National Guard has had a C-130 and a Pave Hawk helicopter on the scene. The U.S. Coast Guard earlier in the week launched the 225-foot cutter Sycamore, but it returned to its home port in Cordova Friday evening to restock and refuel, said McHugh Pierre, spokesman for the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.

A Coast Guard Jayhawk helicopter also was searching on Saturday, as was the trooper helicopter known as Helo-1, Pierre said at midday.

Peters said she wasn't sure which helicopter spotted the debris and body or how it was recovered.

A fleet of small, private aluminum fishing boats from Whittier have helped in the search, and volunteer pilots in the Valdez Civil Air Patrol assisted for the second straight day. The Alaska Railroad sent snowmachines out Thursday after a motorist on the Seward Highway reported seeing something on Spencer Glacier, but that turned up nothing