Search and rescue teams have officially been deployed to locate a plane that went missing while flying over Alaska. The plane was carrying ten people. It is believed the plane went missing somewhere over Alaska’s Norton Sound south of the Artic Circle. The plane was a Bering Air Caravan, which is a single-engine turboprop. The flight was headed towards Nome after leaving Unalakleet on Thursday afternoon. After not reaching their destination at their scheduled time, concern rose for the nine passengers and the pilot. Their last known coordinates are not known at this time, but the Department of Public Safety for Alaska has a team working to trace the plane.
Unalakleet is a small community in western Alaska.
The community is only made up of roughly 690 people. The town is not far from their destination either, being only around 150 miles southeast of Nome. It is nearly 395 miles northwest of Anchorage. The flight should have only been a quick flight over the Norton Sound. Contact with the plane is believed to have been lost not far from reaching land in Nome.
Several major issues have occurred with planes in the last two weeks.
Overall, the United States aviation industry has had many controversies in the past year. Early in 2024, an Alaskan Airlines flight had a door open mid-flight. After that, Boeing planes were massively under fire for technical issues. Just over a week ago, in late January 2025, a commercial jetliner and an Army helicopter crashed into each other just outside of Washington D.C. In this crash, 67 people lost their lives. Then, just a few days after this incident, a medical transportation plane crashed in Philadelphia. Seven people lost their lives in this accident. Many have grown increasingly concerned over the accidents that have been occurring with planes in this country, as they seem to be happening more frequently than before.
The missing plane is a Cessna Caravan.
The flight left Unalakleet just after 2:30 p.m. on Thursday afternoon. Less than an hour later, air traffic control lost contact with the pilot and could not track the plane’s location. The U.S. Coast Guard believes the flight was just 12 miles from land. The passengers filling the plane brought it to its maximum capacity, but it did not go over capacity limits. The flights operated by Bering Air in these small Alaskan towns are quite routine, with most towns having twice-daily flights that occur Monday through Saturday, especially in winter, as flying is often the only way in and out of this region on Alaska. The flight route from Unalakleet to Norm was not unusual.
The weather is causing issues in search and rescue teams’ searches. The time in which they have easy searching abilities is severely limited as visibility is limited. Locals in the area have been advised not to form their own independent search and rescue parties as it is too dangerous without the proper equipment. As of this morning, the search teams are still on the ground and in the air as much as they can be.
