Search Underway for Overdue Plane with 10 People On Board in Alaska

Officials are searching in Alaska for a plane with 10 people that did not arrive in Nome as expected.

The Bering Air Caravan flight, from Unalakleet to Nome, was reported overdue to Alaska State Troopers at 4 p.m. local time, the law enforcement office said.

Officials said there were nine people and one pilot on board.

The Coast Guard has been informed, and a ground search is currently taking place, according to a message from the Nome Volunteer Fire Department on social media. Weather conditions limited air flights Thursday afternoon, it said.

A C-130 Coast Guard plane will fly over the area in a grid pattern using special equipment that can find people and items even when it’s hard to see, according to an update from the fire department around 8 p.m. The fire department said that Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage is providing flight help.

“The fire department said that the ground crews have worked all along the coast from Nome to Topkok.” We still don’t know where the plane is, and we are trying every possible way to find it.

Bering Air’s Operations Director, David Olson, stated that the flight left Unalakleet at 2:37 p.m., according to NBC station KTUU in Anchorage.

The Coast Guard in Alaska reported on X that the plane disappeared 12 miles from the coast while traveling from Unalakleet to Nome.

White Mountain Fire Chief Jack Adams told KTUU that the plane went off radar near the coast from Nome to Topkok, and search teams are looking in a 30-mile area.

“We’re hoping [the plane] is on land, being in the water would be the worst-case scenario,” Adams told the station, adding there is sea ice in the water.

Unalakleet is a small coastal town in western Alaska, located near Norton Sound, and Nome is about 141 miles northwest of it.