A plane carrying 10 people went missing in a remote region along the western coast of Alaska on Thursday, setting off a search amid poor weather conditions, officials said. The Cessna 208 Caravan, on Bering Air Flight 445, left Unalakleet, Alaska, about 2:40 p.m. local time, said David Olson, the airline’s director of operations. The plane went off the radar and lost radio contact with air traffic control and the airline around 3:20 p.m., roughly 10 minutes before it was scheduled to arrive in Nome, he said. A pilot and nine passengers were onboard, Mr. Olson said, adding that their names would not be immediately released. Bering Air’s Caravans can carry as many as nine passengers, according to the airline. When its position was lost, the aircraft was 12 miles offshore, the U.S. Coast Guard said in a statement
Rescuers searched 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 (about 240 kilometers) southeast of Nome and 395 miles (about 640 kilometers) northwest of Anchorage.
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 Coast Guard said a HC-130 Hercules airplane was dispatched from Air Station Kodiak to search "their last known position," but as of Friday morning, the plane has yet to be found. "The plane will not land, but will fly a grid pattern over the water and shoreline in attempts to locate the plane. The plane is equipped with specialized equipment for search and rescue that enables them to locate objects and people through no visibility conditions," said the Nome Volunteer Fire Department, which is also conducting a ground search along the coastline.
