Passenger Plane with 10 People Missing in Alaska, USA

Search Operation Hampered by Severe Weather

A small passenger plane carrying 10 people went missing in Alaska, USA.

On the 6th (local time), a Bering Air passenger plane departing from Unalakleet, Alaska, heading to Nome went missing. The photo shows a Bering Air aircraft. Photo by Bering Air Instagram capture.

According to AFP and other sources on the 6th (local time), the Alaska Department of Public Safety announced that a Bering Air passenger plane that departed from Unalakleet, Alaska, and was heading to Nome went missing and is currently being searched for. It is understood that there were 10 people on board, including 9 passengers and 1 pilot.

The plane took off from Unalakleet at 2:37 PM that day and was last located over Norton Sound Bay between Unalakleet and Nome at 3:16 PM before going missing. Unalakleet and Nome are 235 km apart across Norton Sound Bay.

Jack Adams, the fire chief of White Mountain near Norton Sound Bay, said the plane disappeared from radar while traveling along the coast between Nome and Toppok, and firefighters are currently searching an area about 48 km from that location.

However, the search operation is facing difficulties due to bad weather and other factors. The Alaska State Troopers are conducting ground searches centered around Nome and White Mountain, but due to weather and visibility issues, aerial search operations are limited.

Bering Air is an airline headquartered in Nome. The missing passenger plane is identified as a single-engine turboprop light aircraft, the Cessna 208B.

Recently, there has been growing concern in the United States as passenger plane accidents have occurred consecutively. On the 29th of last month, a small passenger plane and a military helicopter collided mid-air in Washington DC, resulting in 67 deaths. Two days after this accident, an emergency medical transport aircraft crashed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, killing 7 people including those on board and ground victims.

Although there were no casualties, there were also incidents of passenger plane fires and collisions on runways. On the 2nd, at Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport, a fire broke out on United Airlines Flight 1382 (Airbus A320) preparing for takeoff, and passengers evacuated via boarding stairs and emergency slides. On the 5th, a collision occurred between Japan Airlines and Delta Air Lines passenger planes on the runway at Seattle Airport, Washington.