Searchers are looking for a Bering Air plane that was reported missing Thursday on its way from Unalakleet to Nome with 10 people aboard, Alaska State Troopers said.
The Bering Air Caravan, which is carrying nine passengers and a pilot, was reported overdue at 4 p.m. Thursday, troopers said in an online statement.
Clint Johnson, chief of the National Transportation Safety Board’s Alaska office, said the NTSB was aware of the overdue plane and monitoring the situation.
Search and rescue crews are working on getting the aircraft’s last known coordinates, troopers said.
The Nome Volunteer Fire Department also confirmed the overdue plane in a statement on its Facebook page, saying its personnel were conducting an active ground search between Nome and White Mountain. In a subsequent update, the fire department said search crews had covered ground from Nome to Topkok along the coast.
“Due to weather and visibility, we are limited on air search at the current time,” the fire department said in its statement.
The fire department asked the public not to form individual search parties at this time, “due to weather and safety concerns.” In addition to troopers, the National Guard and U.S. Coast Guard are also helping in the search, the fire department said.
In an update posted to Facebook on Thursday night, the Nome Volunteer Fire Department said a Coast Guard C-130 aircraft that arrived in the area would “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,” the department said.
According to the fire department, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson was also sending flight support for the search.
The plane’s exact location was still unknown as of Thursday evening, the fire department said. In another Facebook post, the fire department said the plane’s pilot had told air traffic controllers in Anchorage that he intended to enter a holding pattern while waiting for the runway in Nome to be cleared.
This is a developing story and will be updated.