No survivors in Bering Air Plane Crash near Nome with 10 on board

Sewers on Friday found the missing Bering Air aircraft on Havis southeast of Nome, but they found no survivors.

The aircraft had disappeared on a regularly scheduled flight on Thursday afternoon on the way from Unalakleet to Nome with a pilot and nine passengers on board.

The US Coast Guard found the aircraft, a Cessna 208b Grand Caravan, 34 miles southeast of Nome after a massive search involving several agencies and many volunteers. Rescuers placed three people died inside the plane, the Coast Guard said. It has suspended its search for the others because of the condition of the aircraft, Petty Officer said 1. Class Travis McGee.

“The remaining 7 people are assumed to be inside the aircraft, but are currently inaccessible due to the state of the aircraft,” the agency said in a social media post. “Our heartfelt compassion is with those affected by this tragic incident.”

It is one of Alaska’s deadliest commercial airline crashes for decades.

A quick loss in height

The reason for the aircraft accident remains during investigation.

Flight -Posts show The plane left Unalakleet around 7 p.m. 14.40 Thursday. It flyed at about 3,400 feet when it stopped transferring its location at. 15:18, it was planned to arrive at Nome approx. 10 minutes later.

During a news conference on Friday, coastal guard Benjamin shows McIntyre-Coble Radardata that drops the airfall.

“Part of this radar analysis showed that this aircraft around 2 p.m. 15.18 yesterday afternoon experienced a kind of event that caused them to experience a rapid loss of height and a rapid loss in speed, ”said McIntyre-Coble.

Officials said they did not yet have information about what led to the sudden height of the aircraft.

“We are not aware of other indicators that the aircraft may have experienced any kind of distress before what we have from radar association,” said McIntyre-Coble.

Nome’s fire manager Jim West Jr. said in an interview on Thursday night that the pilot was planning to stay in a holding pattern over Cape Nome until the runway was cleared. Then the plane disappeared. Officials at Friday’s news conference said they had no further information about this account.

The 10 people aboard the aircraft have not yet been identified in public. Officials said they were all adults and their families have been notified.

A comprehensive search

The US Coast Guard was a leading search effort on Friday morning with support from troops, Alaska National Guard, FBI and local volunteers. The Coast Guard reported That the plane was 12 miles offshore when its position was lost.

The search with air Thursday night was mostly focused over the water, and infrared images returned no strong indicators of the plane’s location, officials said. The aircraft had not sent any warnings via its emergency sender according to Nome Volunteer Fire Department.

The department said Friday morning that the weather for the next 24 hours looked steady to continue the search by plane, and local rescue groups would continue to search by Snowmachine. A base of supplies and fuel was established 16 miles east of the city.

Clint Johnson, National Transportation Safety Board’s Alaska chief, said several NTSB staff were on their way to Nome Friday.

“We have a pretty big answer coming from Washington, DC, from different places in the air, near nine people,” Johnson said.

The FBIS anchoring office was also delivers “Cellular Analysis” Friday morning to try to find planet through signals from mobile phones on board.

The weather inhibits early air search

At the time of aircraft’s disappearance National Weather Service Reported visibility of only a mile in Nome, with light snow falling. McIntyre-Cole described weather conditions in the area as “rather challenging” on Thursday night and noticed that they forced an Alaska Air National Guard helicopter to return. Although the weather had improved Friday, conditions remained cold.

“The air temperature near the last known position is about 3 degrees,” he said. “The sea temperature, depending on the status of the ice, is about 29 degrees.”

Overnight to Friday, volunteer crews from Nome and White Mountain searched by Snowmachine after signs of the plane. Danielle Sem, a spokesman for Nome Volunteer Fire Department, said the original effort was a earth-only search “because of the weather and glaze.”

West said a Bering Air helicopter was trying to search for the plane on Thursday, but turned around near Cape Nome with reference to high wind and low visibility.

‘It hits home for everyone’

Gov. Mike Dunleavy And Alaska’s Congress Delegation offered beans for them aboard the missing aircraft via social media on Friday.

“Rose and I are the heart bridge of the disappearance of the Bering Air flight over Norton Sound,” Dunleavy said. “Our prayers are with the passengers, the pilot and their loved ones in this difficult time.”

“Our prayers are with all those in the plane missing out on the western Alaska, the Bering Air family and the whole Nome community,” said Senator Lisa Murkowski.

Senator Dan Sullivan said Friday morning That he had asked NTSB chairman Jennifer Homendy to visit Alaska – “And in her honor she does this this weekend.”

“My team and I are ready to help society Nome and (Head of Government Dunleavy) in every way we can,” said rep. Nick Begich.

The State Senate held a moment of silence in Juneau to mark the word about the missing aircraft. State Rep. Neal Foster, D-Nome, released links to news updates about the search on His Facebook page.

“Thank you very much for keeping them on board and their families in your prayers,” Foster said.

Sem praised the answer from local volunteers who on Thursday turned out 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 it home for everyone,” said Sem. “Because if you don’t know them, another knows them.”

‘Could have been any of us’

In Unalakleet, the school remained open Friday to keep the routine of students, and the local church held a collection for children in the evening with pizza and film, according to Kelsi Ivanoff, Upalakleet City administrator.

“Focus right now seems to take care of our own,” she said, “ensuring that our children are in school and staying in a normal routine because it is good for the children in times like this.”

The incident hits close to everyone in the village, where air travel is important to get places and access medical help in Anchorage and Nome, Ivanoff said.

“It’s really hard and close to hitting because it could have been some of us, and it’s really sad for those who had happened to it and their families,” she said.

She added that residents are also grateful for Bering Air for delivering more flights a day from Unalakleet that are important to the residents.

“They provide so much support to our society, so we will support them now,” she said. “This happens on such a normally planned flight is just sad. It’s really scary, it’s really condescending. “

The airline had 1 deadly crash of 45 years

A representative of Bering Air on Thursday night confirmed the flight number, the departure time and the time of the aircraft’s disappearance, but refused to say more. Bering Air, based in Nome, is an important regional carrier serving 32 communities along the northwest coast of Alaska.

In his 45-year history, Bering Air has had only another fatal crash. According to an NTSB report, the pilot died in a Cessna 207 in December 1987 after beating a mountain while flying from Amfle to Shungnak at night, in what another pilot described as whiteout relationship.

Words of Thursday’s lack of flight come a week after 67 people died in A 29th January Midair Collision Between an American Airlines Regional Jet and a military helicopter near Washington, DC’s Reagan National Airport. The collision marked the nation’s first deaths aboard a scheduled passenger flight of more than five years when a passenger died in a crash of a penair -flying at Unalaskas Airport In 2019.

Few Alaska Aviation crashes in modern history have killed 10 people or more.

A de Havilland DHC-3 Otter Air Taxi powered by Redisk Air crashed right after start From Soldotna Airport in July 2013 and killed all 10 people on board.

In 1995, 24 people died aboard a military aircraft To leave from what is now Anchorage’s joint base Elmendorf-Richardson when a bunch of Canada Geese flew over her flight path and clamped its engines.

In 1971, an Alaska Airlines crashed, bearing 111 people, down on a mountain between Haines and Juneau and killing everything on board.

This is an evolving story. Check back for updates.

Alaska Desktop Reporter Alena Naiden contributed reporting from Anchorage.

Editor’s Note: Following feedback from the readers, we removed the American Coast Guard’s image of the wreck in this story.