Rescuers search for missing plane carrying 10 people in Alaska

Rescuers searched on Friday for any sign of a plane that went missing while carrying 10 people across Alaska’s Norton Sound south of the Arctic Circle.

The Bering Air Caravan, a single-engine turboprop, was heading from Unalakleet to Nome on Thursday afternoon with nine passengers and a pilot, according to Alaska’s department of public safety. Authorities were working to determine its last known coordinates.

Unalakleet is a community of about 690 people in western Alaska, about 150 miles (240km) south-east of Nome and 395 miles north-west of Anchorage.

The disappearance marks the third major incident in US aviation in eight days. A commercial jetliner and an army helicopter collided near the nation’s capital on 29 January, killing 67 people. A medical transportation plane crashed in Philadelphia on 31 January, killing the six people onboard and another person on the ground.

US Senator Dan Sullivan of Alaska posted about the incident on Facebook: “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.”

The Alaska senator Lisa Murkowski also posted on X: “Our prayers are with all those on the plane missing out of western Alaska, the Bering Air family, and the entire community of Nome.”

The Cessna Caravan left Unalakleet at 2.37pm, and officials lost contact with it less than an hour later, according to David Olson, director of operations for Bering Air. The aircraft was 12 miles offshore, the US Coast Guard said. It was operating at its maximum passenger capacity, according to the airline’s description of the plane.

The plane was last seen over the Norton Sound around 3.16pm, according to data from flight tracker FlightRadar 24.

“Staff at Bering Air is working hard to gather details, get emergency assistance, search and rescue going,” Olson said.

Bering Air serves 32 villages in western Alaska from hubs in Nome, Kotzebue and Unalakleet. Most destinations receive twice-daily scheduled flights Monday through Saturday.

Airplanes are often the only option for travel of any distance in rural Alaska, particularly in the winter.

The Nome volunteer fire department said in a statement on social media that ground crews were searching across the coast, from Nome to Topkok.

“Due to weather and visibility, we are limited on air search at the current time,” it said. People were told not to form their own search parties because the weather was too dangerous.

In an update early on Friday, the department said: “Crews are still searching on the ground, canvassing as much area as possible,” but “we do not have any updated information on the location of the missing aircraft.”

A US Coast Guard airplane crew was expected to search the missing aircraft’s last known position. The national guard and troopers were also helping with the search, the fire department said.

It was 17F (-8.3C) in Unalakleet around takeoff, according to the National Weather Service. Weather conditions included fog, light snow and freezing drizzle on Thursday evening. Visibility was down to half a mile at one point, with forecasts of wind gusts up to 35mph overnight.

The names of the people onboard were not yet being released.

Nome, a Gold Rush town, is just south of the Arctic Circle and is known as the ending point of the 1,000-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

Associated Press contributed to this report