Update, Friday:
No survivors were found on board the Bering Air plane that went missing in the Nome area Thursday when searchers discovered it Friday afternoon, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.
In a post on X, the Coast Guard said three people were found dead inside of the plane. The agency did not mention the other seven on board.
The plane was found about 34 miles southeast of Nome, the Coast Guard said.
Original story:
City officials plan to hold a press conference at 5 p.m. to provide further details. KNOM will livestream the conference on its Facebook, YouTube and radio signals.
A massive search is ongoing Friday for a Bering Air plane with 10 on board that departed Unalakleet Thursday and failed to arrive in Nome, officials said.
Flight records indicate that Bering Air flight 455, a Cessna 208B Grand Caravan, was flying at around 3,400 feet when it stopped transmitting its location at 3:18 p.m. It was scheduled to arrive in Nome about 10 minutes later. Nine passengers and one pilot were on board the regularly-scheduled flight, officials say.
During a Friday news conference, Coast Guard Lt. Benjamin McIntyre-Coble said an “item of interest” had been discovered and was being checked out by search aircraft. Crucial information about the missing plane’s last moments airborne came from Civil Air Patrol radar data.
“Part of that radar analysis showed that at around 3:18 p.m. yesterday afternoon, this aircraft experienced some kind of event which caused them to experience a rapid loss in elevation and a rapid loss in speed,” he said.
Officials said they did not have information yet about what led to the plane’s sudden drop. Nome’s fire chief, Jim West Jr., had said in an interview Thursday night that the pilot planned to stay in a holding pattern over Cape Nome until the runway cleared. Then the plane disappeared.
At the time of the plane’s disappearance, the National Weather Service reported visibility of just one mile in Nome, with light snow falling. McIntyre-Cole described weather conditions in the area as “pretty challenging” Thursday, noting that they forced an Alaska Air National Guard helicopter to turn back that evening. Although weather had improved Friday, conditions remained cold.
“The air temperature in the vicinity of the last known position is about 3 degrees,” he said. “The sea temperature, depending on the status of the ice, is about 29 degrees..”
Coast Guardsmen and troopers declined to identify those aboard the plane, but said all of them were adults. Their families have been notified, according to the Nome Volunteer Fire Department. “Please keep families in your thoughts at this time,” said the department’s online update.
Clint Johnson, the National Transportation Safety Board’s Alaska chief, said numerous NTSB personnel were headed to Nome Friday.
“We have a pretty large response coming from Washington, D.C., from various locations in the air, in the neighborhood of nine people,” Johnson said.
No signs of the aircraft overnight
The U.S. Coast Guard is leading search efforts Friday morning, with support from troopers, the Alaska National Guard, the FBI and local volunteers. The Coast Guard reported that the plane was 12 miles offshore when its position was lost.The search by air Thursday night was mostly focused over the water and infrared imagery returned no strong indicators of the plane’s location. The plane has not sent any alerts via its emergency locator transmitter, according to the Nome Volunteer Fire Department.
The department said Friday morning that weather for the next 24 hours looked stable for continuing the search by air, and local rescue groups would continue searching by snowmachine. A base with supplies and fuel has been established 16 miles east of town.
West said that overnight aerial surveys found no signs of the aircraft. As of Friday morning, two Bering Air King Airs, a Black Hawk helicopter and a MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter were among the aircraft involved in the search. The Coast Guard was also planning to drop a buoy to track ice movement in the area, firefighters said.
All commercial Bering Air flights for Friday have been grounded.
Clint Johnson, the National Transportation Safety Board’s Alaska chief, said an investigator traveled to Nome on Friday morning, with a full team en route. The FBI’s Anchorage office said it also sent a team to provide “cellular analysis,” which firefighters said might help locate the flight through signals from the cellphones on board.
All families of passengers on the missing flight have been notified, the local fire department said. “Please keep families in your thoughts at this time,” said the department’s online update. Norton Sound Health Corporation announced Thursday evening it had set up a space for family members in its third floor conference room.
A representative from Bering Air confirmed the flight number, departure time and the time of the plane’s disappearance, but declined to say more. Bering Air, based in Nome, is a major regional air carrier serving 32 communities along Alaska’s northwest coast.
Weather hampers early air search
National Weather Service meteorologist Jonathan Chriest said that the Nome area saw snowy conditions and visibility between 1 and 3 miles for most of Thursday. Conditions cleared slightly between 2 and 4 p.m, but after that, light freezing drizzle returned and transitioned back to snow later in the evening.
“There was a period of good visibility around 3 p.m., up to 10 miles,” Chriest said. “Then visibility later on in the afternoon diminished back down to near a mile, with a short period of visibility at half a mile.”
Overnight into Friday, volunteer crews from Nome and White Mountain searched by snowmachine for signs of the plane. Danielle Sem, a spokesperson for the Nome Volunteer Fire Department, said the initial effort was a ground-only search “because of the weather and icing.”
West said a Bering Air helicopter tried to search for the plane Thursday but turned around near Cape Nome, citing high winds and low visibility.
West said the city had provided a grader to plow 16 miles of road to the east of Nome for a staging area. While finding the plane is the first priority, he said windy weather and deep snow would make the work difficult.
“The next goal is, how do we get out there to get to them? Right? That’s going to be the challenge,” West said on Thursday night.
The search area includes the land east of Nome, where an occasional grove of willows breaks up the treeless tundra, and the Bering Sea just off the coast. Satellite imagery confirmed the presence of sea ice extending a half-mile from the shore.
‘It hits home for everyone’
Norton Sound Health Corporation announced Thursday evening it had set up a space for family members in its third floor conference room.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy and Alaska’s congressional delegation offered prayers for those aboard the missing plane via social media Friday.
“Rose and I are heartbroken by the disappearance of the Bering Air flight over Norton Sound,” Dunleavy said. “Our prayers are with the passengers, the pilot, and their loved ones during this difficult time.”
“Our prayers are with all those on the plane missing out of western Alaska, the Bering Air family, and the entire community of Nome,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski.
Sen. Dan Sullivan said Friday morning that he had asked NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy to visit Alaska – “and to her credit, she’s doing that this weekend.”
“My team and I stand ready to assist the community of Nome and (Gov. Dunleavy) in any way we can,” said Rep. Nick Begich.
The state Senate held a moment of silence in Juneau to mark word of the missing plane. State Rep. Neal Foster, D-Nome, posted links to news updates about the search on his Facebook page.
“Many thanks for keeping those on board and their families in your prayers,” Foster said.
Sem praised the response from local volunteers, who turned out in force Thursday to search for the plane at night, in 10-degree temperatures.
“When something happens here in small communities, in the small region that we live in, it hits home for everybody,” Sem said. “Because if you don’t know them, somebody else knows them.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the time the plane was scheduled to land in Nome and its altitude when it stopped transmitting its location.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Alaska Desk reporter Alena Naiden contributed reporting from Anchorage.
