A desperate search is underway Friday in Alaska for a plane carrying 10 people that vanished Thursday afternoon.
The flight, operated by Bering Air, was traveling from Unalakleet to Nome in Western Alaska when its position was lost about 12 miles offshore, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. Data from FlightRadar shows the Cessna 208B Grand Caravan EX last reporting info at 3:16 p.m. over the Norton Sound.
“The FBI [is] coming in to Nome to try and locate the group through cell phone tracking,” said the Nome Volunteer Fire Department, which is also conducting a ground search along the coastline. “The plane has not communicated by Emergency Locator Transmitter.”
The department said aerial searches carried out by C-130 Hercules planes from the National Guard and Air Force resulted in “no sightings.”
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The city of Nome, Alaska, awaits the first Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race musher in March 2023. (Loren Holmes/Anchorage Daily News)
Last night, it wrote on Facebook that “the pilot of the plane told Anchorage Air Traffic Control that he intended to enter a holding pattern while waiting for the runway to be cleared” in Nome.
On Friday, Nome Volunteer Fire Department said “all families of passengers on the missing flight have been notified.”
“Please keep families in your thoughts at this time. Search efforts continue by air and land. The Coast Guard helicopter is actively canvassing the sea ice and shoreline, and the National Guard is spooling up to launch in the Black Hawk,” it added.
The Bering Air plane vanished Thursday afternoon while traveling to Nome in Alaska. (Fox News)
Bering Air describes itself as a regional air service based out of Nome, with hubs in Kotzebue and Unalakleet.Â
“We operate scheduled passenger and cargo flights seven days a week out of each hub to 32 communities along the northwest coast of Alaska,” it said on its website.
The missing aircraft was carrying nine passengers and one pilot, according to the Alaska Department of Public Safety.Â
“Staff at Bering Air is working hard to gather details, get emergency assistance, search and rescue going,” David Olson, its director of operations, told the Associated Press.
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The Bering Sea is seen of the coast of Nome in December 2018. (Reuters/Yereth Rosen)
Norton Sound Health Corporation said it is “ready to respond to a community medical emergency,” but did not give any other details.Â
A National Transportation Safety Board investigator is also heading to Nome Friday, the Anchorage Daily News reported.
The temperature was 17 degrees in Unalakleet with light snow and fog during takeoff, the Associated Press reported, citing the National Weather Service.
“We are hearing reports of a possible missing plane en route to Nome. Our thoughts and prayers are with the passengers, their families and the rescue crew,” Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Ak., wrote on Facebook.
The missing plane comes after back-to-back fatal aviation incidents in the U.S. last week, including the collision between a military helicopter and a passenger jet near the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) and a Learjet 55 medevac jet that crashed in Philadelphia.
