JUNEAU, Alaska (ABC) – A small commuter plane that crashed in western Alaska on its way to Nome has been found on sea ice, with all 10 people on board confirmed dead, local authorities say.
The Bering Air plane was traveling from Unalakleet on Thursday afternoon with nine passengers and a pilot, according to Alaska’s Department of Public Safety.
Officials lost contact with it less than an hour after take off at 2:30 p.m.
On Friday, US Coast Guard officials said rescuers were searching the aircraft’s last known location by helicopter when they spotted the wreckage floating on ice about 34 miles offshore from Nome, in Norton Sound (an inlet of the Bering Sea).
Radar forensic data provided by the US Civil Air Patrol indicated that about 3:18 p.m. on Thursday, the plane had “some kind of event which caused them to experience a rapid loss in elevation and a rapid loss in speed”, according to Coast Guard Lieutenant Commander Benjamin McIntyre-Coble.
The lieutenant commander said it was unclear what “that event” may have been and that no distress signals had been sent from the aircraft.
Planes carry an emergency locating transmitter. If exposed to seawater, the device sends a signal to a satellite, which then relays that message back to the coastguard to indicate an aircraft may be in distress.
The plane, a Cessna 208B Grand Caravan, was operating at its maximum passenger capacity of 10.
All people on board were adults, and the flight was a regularly scheduled commuter trip, according to Lieutenant Ben Endres of the Alaska State Troopers.
Bering Air serves 32 villages in western Alaska from hubs in Nome, Kotzebue and Unalakleet through twice-daily scheduled flights Monday through Saturday.
Most Alaska communities are not connected to the state’s main road system, and airplanes are often the only option for travel of any distance in rural areas, particularly in winter.
