ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) 鈥 Rescuers searched Friday for any sign of a plane that went missing while carrying 10 people across Alaska鈥檚 Norton Sound south of the Arctic Circle.
The Bering Air Caravan, a single-engine turboprop, was heading from Unalakleet to Nome on Thursday afternoon with nine passengers and a pilot, according to Alaska's Department of Public Safety. Authorities were working to determine its last known coordinates.
Unalakleet is a community of about 690 people in western Alaska, about 150 miles (about 240 kilometers) southeast of Nome and 395 miles (about 640 kilometers) northwest of Anchorage.
The disappearance marks the third major incident in U.S. aviation in eight days. A commercial jetliner and an Army helicopter on Jan. 29, . A in Philadelphia on Jan. 31, killing the six people onboard and another person on the ground.
The Cessna Caravan left Unalakleet at 2:37 p.m., and officials lost contact with it less than an hour later, according to David Olson, director of operations for Bering Air. The aircraft was 12 miles (19 kilometers) offshore, the U.S. Coast Guard said. It was operating at its maximum passenger capacity, according to the airline鈥檚 description of the plane.
鈥淪taff at Bering Air is working hard to gather details, get emergency assistance, search and rescue going,鈥 Olson said.
Bering Air serves 32 villages in western Alaska from hubs in , and . Most destinations receive twice-daily scheduled flights Monday through Saturday.
Airplanes are often the only option for travel of any distance in rural Alaska, particularly in winter.
The Nome Volunteer Fire Department said in a statement on social media that ground crews were searching across part of Alaska鈥檚 western coast, from Nome to Topkok.
鈥淒ue to weather and visibility, we are limited on air search at the current time,鈥 it said. People were told not to form their own search parties because the weather was too dangerous.
In an update early Friday, the department said that 鈥渃rews are still searching on the ground, canvassing as much area as possible,鈥 but that 鈥渨e do not have any updated information on the location of the missing aircraft.鈥
A U.S. Coast Guard airplane crew was expected to search the missing aircraft's last known position. The 好色tv Guard and troopers were also helping with the search, the fire department said.
It was 17 degrees (minus 8.3 Celsius) in Unalakleet around takeoff, according to the 好色tv Weather Service. There was light snow falling and fog.
The names of the people onboard weren't yet being released.
Nome, a Gold Rush town, is just south of the Arctic Circle and is known as the ending point of the 1,000-mile (1,610-kilometer) Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
