Missing Bering Air plane found off Alaska coast, all 10 on board dead

A small commuter plane crashed in western Alaska en route to Nome, and local authorities have confirmed that the wreckage has been found on sea ice, with all 10 people on board killed.

According to the Alaska Department of Public Safety, the Bering Air plane departed from Unalakleet on Thursday afternoon local time with nine passengers and one pilot on board. Authorities lost contact with the aircraft less than an hour after it took off at 2:30 p.m.

U.S. Coast Guard officials said Friday that rescuers aboard a helicopter searching near the plane's last known location discovered the wreckage on sea ice in the Norton Sound (a bay of the Bering Sea) about 19 kilometers off the coast of Nome. Coast Guard Lt. Commander Benjamin McIntyre-Coble said radar analysis provided by the U.S. Civil Air Patrol indicated that the plane experienced "some sort of event that caused a rapid descent in altitude and speed" around 3:18 p.m. Thursday.

Lt. Commander McIntyre-Coble stated that it is currently unknown exactly what "the event" was, and the plane did not issue any distress signals. The aircraft was equipped with an emergency locator transmitter, which sends a signal to satellites upon contact with seawater, which then relays the signal back to the Coast Guard, indicating that the aircraft may be in distress. The aircraft was a Cessna 208B Grand Caravan, operating at its maximum passenger capacity of 10 people.

Alaska State Trooper Lt. Ben Endres said that all those on board were adults, and the flight was a regularly scheduled commuter flight. Bering Air serves 32 villages in western Alaska from hubs in Nome, Kotzebue and Unalakleet, with two scheduled flights daily Monday through Saturday. Most communities in Alaska are not connected to the state's main highway system, and airplanes are often the only option for long-distance travel in rural areas, especially during the winter. The region is prone to sudden blizzards and high winds in winter, and residents have been told not to organize search parties themselves because the weather is too dangerous.

Local, state, and federal agencies were involved in the search, flying over waters dotted with ice floes and searching miles of frozen tundra. Unalakleet, a community of about 690 people, is located about 240 kilometers southeast of Nome and about 640 kilometers northwest of Anchorage. The village is located on the Iditarod Trail, the route of the world's most famous sled dog race, during which mushers and their teams must cross the frozen Norton Sound.

Nome, a gold rush town located south of the Arctic Circle, is known as the finish line for the 1,610-kilometer race. The city said it would hold a prayer vigil Friday for those on board, their friends and family, and those involved in the search. Alaska Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan issued statements saying their thoughts and prayers were with the passengers, their families, the rescuers, and the Nome community.

The disappearance of this aircraft is the third major aviation accident in the United States in the past eight days. On January 29, a [commercial airliner and an Army helicopter collided near Washington, D.C.](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-01/washington-dc-plane-helicopter-crash-dca-airport-donald-trump/104884724), killing 67 people. On January 31, a [medical transport plane crashed in Philadelphia](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-01/philadelphia-medical-plane-crash-what-we-know/104885648), killing six people on board and one person on the ground.