ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU/Gray News) – Rescuers searched Friday after a plane in Alaska was reported missing late Thursday afternoon, according to officials.
Jim West, volunteer fire and ambulance chief in Nome, Alaska said the plane went down with 10 people on board.
The plane, a Cessna 208B Grand Caravan aircraft owned by Bering Air, was reported to have been flying from Unalakleet to Nome, according to the Nome Volunteer Fire Department.
The flight took off from Unalakleet at 2:37 p.m., according to Bering Air Director of Operations David Olson. Unalakleet is a community of about 690 people in western Alaska, about 150 miles southeast of Nome and 395 miles northwest of Anchorage.
Data from FlightRadar shows a Bering Air flight last reporting information at 3:16 p.m. Thursday over the Norton Sound.
White Mountain Fire Chief Jack Adams said the plane disappeared from the radar somewhere along the coast of Nome to Topkok. He also said they have crews actively searching a roughly 30-mile stretch in that area.
“They’re prepared to be out all night, they will search here until they find them or somebody else finds them,” Adams said. “If they don’t find anything, we’ll probably rally another crew to go and help.”
Adams said the sea ice is “kind of jumbled” and hard to traverse, so the ground crews are traveling on the Iditarod trail to search.
“We’re hoping [the plane] is on land, being in the water would be the worst-case scenario,” he said.
Alaska State Troopers reported in a dispatch that the flight had nine passengers and one pilot onboard.
The volunteer department stated it was conducting an active ground search from the communities of Nome and White Mountain, but weather and visibility issues restricted the air search.
“Word is, all the aircraft are grounded, there’s zero visibility,” Adams said. “Basically, you can’t see anything from the air or the ground, and in the dark looking for something in zero visibility is a tough job.”
A Nome search and rescue group on snow machines and other vehicles is preparing to respond to the site, according to West.
Norton Sound Health Corporation in Nome put out a notice at 5:25 p.m. Thursday that it was “ready to respond to a community medical emergency,” but did not give any other details.
An FAA weather camera located in Nome showed what appeared to be near-whiteout conditions over several hours Thursday afternoon.
The Nome volunteer department wrote on its social pages that families should seek support from Norton Sound.
“We ask the public to please think of those who may be missing at this time, but due to weather and safety concerns please do not form individual search parties,” the message read.
Nome volunteer department also wrote that the Coast Guard is scoping out the area, and says a C-130 will be flying in a grid pattern in attempts to locate the missing place. The C-130 also has specialized equipment for search and rescue that allows them to see people or objects during low visibility conditions.
The names of the people on board have not been released.
The disappearance marks the third major incident in U.S. aviation in eight days. On Jan. 29, a commercial jetliner and an Army helicopter collided near the nation’s capital on Jan. 29, killing 67 people. Then on Jan. 31, a medical transportation plane crashed in Philadelphia, killing the six people onboard and another person on the ground.
Copyright 2025 KTUU via Gray Local Media, Inc. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved.