A plane carrying 10 people through the Norton of Alaska south of the Arctic Circle disappeared Thursday afternoon and the rescuers searched overnight for any sign of the plane.
The Béring Air caravan was heading for Unalakleet to Nome with nine passengers and a pilot, according to the Alaska Ministry of Public Security. The authorities worked to determine its latest known coordinates.
Unalakleet is a community of around 690 people in western Alaska, about 240 kilometers south-east of Nome and 640 kilometers northwest of anchorage.
The disappearance marks the third major incident in American aviation in eight days. A commercial jetliner and a helicopter of the American army collided near the national capital on January 29, killing 67 people. A medical transport plane crashed in Philadelphia on January 31, killing the six people on board and another person on the ground.
The Cessna caravan left Unalakleet at 2:37 p.m. local time, and officials lost contact with her less than an hour later, according to David Olson, director of operations at Bering Air. The plane was 19 kilometers off, according to the American Coast Guard.
“Bering Air staff work hard to collect details, get emergency assistance, research and rescue,” said Olson.
American Coast Guard to join the research
Béring Air serves 32 villages in the west of Alaska from Hubs in Nome, Kotzebue and Unalakleet. Most destinations receive scheduled flights twice a day from Monday to Saturday.
Aircraft is often the only option to move all distances in rural regions of Alaska, especially in winter.
Nome’s voluntary fire service said in a press release on social networks that the ground teams excavated across the coast, from Nome to Topkok.
“Due to the weather and visibility, we are limited to seeking air today,” he said. People were told not to train their own research evenings because time was too dangerous.
In an early update Friday, the ministry said that “the teams still sought in the field, which could make as much surface as possible”, but that “we have no information updated on the site of The missing plane “.
A coastal coastal plane crew was to search the last known position of the missing plane. The National Guard and the soldiers also helped research, according to the fire service.
It was –8.3 C in Unalakleet around takeoff, according to the US National Weather Service. There was light snow that fell and fog.
The names of people on board had not yet been released.
Nome, a city of gold rush, is just south of the Arctic circle and is known as the end point of the 610 kilometers of dog dogs of Iditarod Trail.
