Rescue herds searching for overdue Bering Air aircraft by 10 aboard

Segemers are looking for a Bering Air aircraft reported Missing Thursday on the way from Unalakleet to Nome with 10 people on board, Alaska State Troopers said.

Bering Air Caravan, carrying nine passengers and a pilot, was reported for due at 1 p.m. 16 Thursday, said troops in one Online statement.

Clint Johnson, head of National Transportation Safety Board’s Alaska Office, said NTSB was aware of the dilapidated aircraft and monitored the situation.

Search and rescue herds are working to get the aircraft’s last known coordinates, Troopers said.

Nome Volunteer Fire Department also confirmed the dilapidated aircraft in a statement of its Facebook pageAnd said its staff did an active land search between Nome and White Mountain. In a subsequent update, the fire department said the search herds had covered the ground from Nome to Topkok along the coast.

“Due to weather and visibility, we are limited to air search at the current time,” the fire department said in its statement.

The fire department asked the public not to form individual search parties at this time, “because of weather and security concerns.” In addition to Troopers, the National Guard and the US Coast Guard also help the search, the fire department said.

In one Update Sent to Facebook Thursday night, Nome Volunteer Fire Department said that a coastguard C-130 aircraft arriving in the area would “fly a grid pattern over the water and the coast in an attempt to locate the aircraft.”

“The aircraft is equipped with special equipment for search and rescue that allows them to find objects and people without any visibility conditions,” the department said.

According to the fire department, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson also sent flight support to the search.

The exact location of the aircraft was still unknown from Thursday night, the fire department said. In another Facebook post, the fire department said the aircraft’s pilot had told air traffic controllers in Anchorage that he intended to get into a holding pattern while waiting for the Nome runway to be cleared.

This is an evolving story and will be updated.