A small commercial plane with 10 people on board went missing in Alaska on Thursday, and search crews were actively looking for the aircraft on Friday, according to local authorities. The Bering Air Caravan, which had nine passengers and one pilot, was reported overdue after it failed to arrive from Unalakleet to Nome by 4:00 pm Alaska Standard Time (0100 GMT), Alaska state police confirmed.
The two cities are situated about 146 miles (235km) apart across Norton Sound on Alaska’s west coast. Nome’s volunteer fire department shared on Facebook that “the pilot of the plane told Anchorage air traffic control that ‘he intended to enter a holding pattern while waiting for the runway to be cleared'” before the plane vanished.
The fire department also noted that the U.S. Coast Guard had dispatched a C-130 aircraft to help ground crews search for the missing plane.
In the latest update on Friday, the department stated, “We do not have any updated information on the location of the missing aircraft. Crews are still searching on the ground, canvassing as much area as possible.”
FlightRadar24’s last known position of the missing plane showed it was over water around 40 minutes after departure.
This incident marks the latest in a series of recent aviation tragedies in the United States. On January 30, a passenger jet collided midair with a U.S. Army helicopter in Washington, D.C., resulting in the deaths of all 67 people on both aircraft. Shortly after, a medical plane crashed into a busy neighborhood in Philadelphia, killing seven and injuring 19 people.
