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Associated Press

A small commuter plane that crashed in western Alaska on its way to the hub community of Nome was located on sea ice, and all 10 people on board were dead, authorities said on Friday.
The crash was one of the deadliest in the state in the last 25 years.
Mike Salerno, a spokesman for the US coastguard, said rescuers were searching the aircraft’s last known location by helicopter when the wreckage was spotted. Two rescue swimmers were lowered to investigate.
A photo provided by the coastguard showed the plane’s splintered body and debris lying on the sea ice. Two people in brightly coloured emergency gear circled the wreckage.
“It’s hard to accept the reality of our loss,” US Senator Lisa Murkowski said during an evening news conference.
Nome Mayor John Handeland choked up as he discussed the deaths and the response effort.
“Nome is a strong community, and in challenging times we come together and support each other. I expect the outpouring of support to continue in the coming days as we all work to recover from this tragic incident,” Handeland said.
Already the focus was shifting to a recovery operation because of rapidly changing conditions. Officials outlined the challenges including bad weather expected in the next 18 hours and “young ice” that was slushy and not stable.
“They are on the ice as we speak,” Jim West, chief of the Nome Volunteer Fire Department, said. “The conditions out there are dynamic, and so we’ve got to do it safely and the fastest way we can.”


The Bering Air single-engine turboprop plane was travelling from Unalakleet on Thursday afternoon with nine passengers and a pilot, Alaska’s Department of Public Safety said.
Bering Air provides services to 32 communities in western Alaska from hubs in Nome, Kotzebue and Unalakleet. Most Alaska communities are not connected to the state’s main road system and rely heavily on alternative means of travel, including small aeroplanes.
The Cessna Caravan left Unalakleet at 2.37pm, and officials lost contact with it less than an hour later, David Olson, director of operations for Bering Air, said. The aircraft was 19km (12 miles) offshore, the coastguard said.
It was operating at its maximum passenger capacity, according to the airline’s description of the plane.
Radar forensic data provided by the US Civil Air Patrol indicated that about 3.18pm on Thursday, the plane had “some kind of event which caused them to experience a rapid loss in elevation and a rapid loss in speed”, coastguard Lieutenant Commander Benjamin McIntyre-Coble said. “What that event is, I can’t speculate to.”
McIntyre-Coble said he was unaware of any distress signals from the aircraft. Planes carry an emergency locating transmitter. If exposed to seawater, the device sends a signal to a satellite, which then relays that message back to the coastguard to indicate an aircraft may be in distress. There have been no such messages received by the coastguard, he said.

All 10 people on board the plane were adults and the flight was a regularly scheduled commuter trip, according to Lieutenant Ben Endres with the Alaska State Troopers.
Two people who died in the crash were on a work trip for a non-profit tribal health organisation, according to Alaska’s News Source. The other victims names have not been released.
Local, state and federal agencies had assisted in the search effort, combing stretches of ice-dotted waters and scouring kilometres of frozen tundra.
The plane’s disappearance marks the third major US aviation mishap in eight days. A commercial airliner and an army helicopter collided near the nation’s capital on January 29, killing 67 people. A medical transport plane crashed in Philadelphia on January 31, killing the six people on board and another person on the ground.
Unalakleet is a community of about 690 people about 241km (150 miles) southeast of Nome and 635km (395 miles) northwest of Anchorage. The village is on the Iditarod trail, 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, is just south of the Arctic Circle and is known as the ending point of the 1,610-kilometre (1,000-mile) Iditarod. The city said prayer vigils would be held on Friday for those on board the plane, friends and family and those involved in search efforts.


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News

World

United States & Canada

The Bering Air plane crash marks the third major US aviation mishap in eight days


The Bering Air plane crash marks the third major US aviation mishap in eight days.


Aviation

United States