Search is intensified by the Alaska flight, which disappeared with 10 people near Nome. Here’s what we know.

The search in northwestern Alaska intensified Friday after a plane that disappeared with 10 people on board, says officials there.

Bering Air Flight 445 – A Grand Caravan 208B 208B – Bar nine passengers and a pilot from Unalakleet to Nome when it disappeared Thursday afternoon, According to the Federal Aviation Administration. The identities of them on board have not been released.

Alaska Department of Public Safety said in A statement This state troops was contacted by the US Coast Guard on “A Due Fly” at. 16 local time, and this search and rescue personnel worked to determine the aircraft’s last known coordinates.

In a post of xsaid the Coast Guard that the plane was about 12 miles offshore when its position was lost. Unalakleet and Nome are about 150 miles apart, separated by Norton Sound.

What we know about the search so far

Nome Volunteer Fire Department said In a Facebook post Friday This search and rescue team as well as the Coast Guard, the National Guard and the US Air Force expanded their search for the missing aircraft.

The fire department said it did a land search inland and along the coast, while the National Guard and Coast Guard carried out grid searches by plane.

CNN reported that the FBI also “helped the search with technical resources, including work to geolocate mobile phones in the aircraft’s passengers.”

According to the fire department, all families of passengers on the lack of flight have been notified.

Fly disappeared shortly before it was due to land

According to the flight tracking site Flightradar24, the last position of the aircraft was received at 1 p.m. 15:16 local time, 38 minutes after it left Unalakleet.

David Olson, Bering Air’s director of operations, Associated Press told the aircraft left Unalakleet at 1 p.m. 14:37 and lost radio contact about 10 minutes before it was scheduled to arrive at Nome. The fire department said the pilot for the missing aircraft had told Anchorage Air Traffic Control that “he intended to get into a holding pattern while waiting for the runway to be cleared.”

As per National Weather ServiceThere was light snow, freezing drip and fog around Nome Airport on Thursday night. Danielle Tessen, a spokeswoman for Alaska’s Transport Department, told the New York Times That the runway at Nome Airport, which the plane had approached, had been open all day, and that de -icing operations took place “as there were no aircraft on approach or near the airport.”

Bering Air is a FAA Certified Regional Air Service based in Nome with Hubs in Kotzebue and Unalakleet, According to its site. It drives passenger and cargo flights seven days a week out of each hub to 32 communities along the northwest coast of Alaska.

As per Alaska Transportation DepartmentMore than 80% of the communities in the state are inaccessible by car and “are dependent on air access to give basic needs.”

Unalakleet has a population of approx. 800 according to US census data. Nome, with a population of approx. 10,000, is best known as the end point of the 1,000 mile Iditarod Trail Sled Sled Race.

US Air Safety Under Control

The search for the missing aircraft comes in the midst of intense control of US air safety after two deadly events in recent weeks,

On January 29, an American Airlines aircraft collided with a military helicopter over the Potomac River near Washington, DC, killing 67 people. It was the deadliest air disaster in the United States since 2001.

Two days later, a medical jet crashed near a mall in Philadelphia and killed seven people.

The reasons for the two crashes are under investigation.

This is an evolving story. Reload this page for updates.