Alaska missing plane latest: Air Force and Coast Guard search for 10 onboard Bering Air jet
Alaska missing plane latest: Air Force and Coast Guard search for 10 onboard Bering Air jet
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Nine passengers and a pilot are missing after a Bering Air plane vanished in rural Alaska, leaving medical personnel ‘standing ready to respond’. A plane carrying 10 people went missing in rural Alaska during a dangerous winter storm, with the U.S. Coast Guard and Air Force scouring the ground for survivors and medical personnel “standing ready”. The aircraft, operated by Bering Air, was reported missing just before 4 p.m. local time on Thursday while en route from Unalakleet to Nome in the west of the state. Nine passengers and a pilot were on board the Cessna 208B Grand Caravan on Bering Air Flight 445, according to Alaska’s Department of Public Safety.
The plane took off from Unalakleet at 2:37 p.m., and officials lost contact with it less than an hour later when it was believed to be about 12 miles offshore, according to the director of operations for Bering Air, David Olson. It went off radio roughly 10 minutes before its scheduled arrival in Nome. “The plane’s exact location is still unknown. We continue to expand search efforts to as many avenues as possible until the plane is located,” the Nome Volunteer Fire Department wrote in an update late on Thursday.
Alaska Senator, Dan Sullivan, took to Facebook to offer his “thoughts and prayers” for the “passengers, their families and the rescue crew”. The Nome Volunteer Fire Department, which is conducting an active ground search of Nome and the White Mountains, said the precise location of the aircraft is not clear. “The plane’s exact location is still unknown. We continue to expand search efforts to as many avenues as possible until the plane is located,” the fire department wrote in an update late on Thursday.
Nine passengers and a pilot were on board the Cessna 208B Grand Caravan on Bering Air Flight 445, according to Alaska’s Department of Public Safety. The Nome Volunteer Fire Department is conducting an active ground search in Nome and the White Mountains, according to a Facebook post. The search has been hampered by poor weather conditions and visibility. The Coast Guard and U.S. Air Force stepped in with flights planned to scope out the area and attempt to locate the missing aircraft.
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