Authorities say all ten persons on board a small commuter plane died after it crashed in western Alaska on its way to the hub village of Nome. The plane was found on sea ice on Friday.
According to U.S. Coast Guard spokesperson Mike Salerno, searchers discovered the debris while using a helicopter to look for the aircraft’s last known location. Two rescue swimmers were dropped to look into it.
The Alaska Department of Public Safety reports that the Bering Air single-engine turboprop aircraft, with nine passengers and a pilot, was departing from Unalakleet on Thursday afternoon.
Officials lost communication with the Cessna Caravan less than an hour after it departed Unalakleet at 2:37 p.m., according to David Olson, Bering Air’s director of operations. The National Weather Service reported a temperature of 17 degrees with mild fog and snow.
Less than an hour later, officials were unable to communicate with the aircraft. About 30 miles southeast of Nome, according to the Coast Guard, the plane vanished. The Coast Guard said that the plane was 12 miles offshore.
As per the airline’s description, the aircraft was carrying as many passengers as possible.
According to Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Benjamin McIntyre-Coble, radar forensic data from the U.S. Civil Air Patrol showed that the plane had a sudden loss of speed and elevation at approximately 3:18 p.m. on Thursday. I can’t guess what that event is.
“I was not aware of any distress signals from the aircraft,” McIntyre-Coble stated. An emergency locating transmitter is carried by airplanes. The gadget notifies the Coast Guard that an aircraft might be in difficulty by sending a signal to a satellite if it comes into contact with seawater. “The Coast Guard has not received any such messages,” he said.
Lt. Ben Endres of the Alaska State Troopers claimed that all ten passengers were adults and that the aircraft was a routine commuter excursion.
The plane’s disappearance is the third significant aviation accident in eight days in the United States. On January 29, an Army helicopter and a commercial airplane collided close to the country’s capital, killing 67 people. Six passengers on board and one person on the ground were killed when a medical transportation plane crashed in Philadelphia on January 31.
The majority of Alaskan settlements lack access to the state’s primary road network, and in rural places, especially during the winter, airplanes are frequently the only means of transportation for any distance. Residents were advised not to organize their own search parties due to the hazardous weather conditions, which include sudden snow squalls and strong winds throughout the winter months.
With hubs in Nome, Kotzebue, and Unalakleet, Bering Air provides service to 32 settlements in western Alaska. Monday through Saturday, flights are scheduled twice day to most locations. Flightradar24, a flight tracking agency, said that two Bering Air aircraft seemed to be searching in a grid pattern near off the coast Friday morning.
In order to help with the search, local, state, and federal agencies flew over areas of seas studded with ice and combed across miles of frozen tundra.
The Coast Guard and others were participating in aerial search operations, and the National Guard was authorized to fly a helicopter Friday morning. A ground crew on snowmobiles traveled along the shore and farther inland, and the shore Guard intended to deploy a buoy to aid in tracking the passage of sea ice.
About 690 people live in the town of Unalakleet, which is located 395 miles northwest of Anchorage and 150 miles southeast of Nome. The settlement is situated along the Iditarod Trail, which is the path taken by mushers and their teams as they traverse the icy Norton Sound during the most renowned sled dog race in the world.
Known as the terminus of the 1,000-mile Iditarod, Nome is a Gold Rush town located just south of the Arctic Circle. The city announced that prayer vigils for the passengers, loved ones, and search personnel would take place on Friday.
U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan of Alaska released remarks expressing their condolences for the passengers, their loved ones, the rescuers, and the people of Nome. On the social media site X, U.S. Representative Nick Begich stated that he was prepared to help Nome and Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy in any manner possible.
–The Associated Press/Gene Johnson and Becky Bohrer
