Rescuers continued to search on Friday for any sign the Cessna 208B Grand Caravan that went missing across Alaska's Norton Sound south of the Arctic Circle with 10 passengers on board.
The aircraft, operated by Bering Air, was flying from Unalakleet to Nome with nine passengers and a pilot when it disappeared on Thursday. The last communication from the plane was received at 3:16 PM local time.
Authorities are working to determine the last known coordinates of the aircraft. Search teams have been dispatched, but poor weather conditions have limited aerial operations, and ground searches are ongoing.
Unalakleet is a community of about 690 people in western Alaska, about 150 miles (about 240 kilometers) southeast of Nome and 395 miles (about 640 kilometers) northwest 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 January 29, killing 67 people.
Also read: 64 feared dead as US flight crashes with Army chopper in Washington
A medical transportation plane crashed in Philadelphia on January 31, killing the six people onboard and another person on the ground.
The Cessna Caravan left Unalakleet at 2:37 p.m., 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 (19 kilometers) offshore, according to the US Coast Guard.
“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 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 Friday, the department said that “crews are still searching on the ground, canvassing as much area as possible”, but that “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, according to the fire department.
It was 17 degrees (minus 8.3 Celsius) in Unalakleet around takeoff, according to the National Weather Service. There was light snow falling and fog.
The names of the people onboard weren't 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 (1,610-kilometer) Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
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