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ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A small commuter plane that crashed in western
Alaska on its way to the hub community of Nome was located Friday on sea
ice, and all 10 people on board were dead, authorities said. The crash
was one of the deadliest in the state in the last 25 years.
Rescuers were searching the aircraft's last known location by helicopter
when the wreckage was spotted, said Mike Salerno, a spokesperson for the
U.S. Coast Guard. Two rescue swimmers were lowered to investigate.
A photo provided by the Coast Guard showed the plane's splintered body
and debris lying on the sea ice. Two people in brightly colored
emergency gear circled the wreckage.
“It’s hard to accept the reality of our loss,” U.S. Sen. 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.
A prayer service was announced for later in the evening.
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,” said Jim West, chief of the Nome Volunteer Fire Department. “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 traveling from
Unalakleet on Thursday afternoon with nine passengers and a pilot,
Alaska’s Department of Public Safety said. It was operating at its
maximum passenger capacity, according to the airline’s description of
the plane.
The Cessna Caravan left Unalakleet at 2:37 p.m., and officials lost
contact with it less than an hour later, according to David Olson,
director of operations for Bering Air. There was light snow and fog,
with a temperature of 17 degrees (minus 8.3 Celsius), according to the
National Weather Service.
The Coast Guard said the aircraft went missing about 30 miles (48
kilometers) southeast of Nome.
Radar forensic data provided by the U.S. Civil Air Patrol indicated that
about 3:18 p.m., the plane had “some kind of event which caused them to experience a rapid loss in elevation and a rapid loss in speed,” Coast
Guard Lt. Cmdr. 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 Coast Guard to indicate an aircraft may be in distress. No such messages were received by the Coast Guard, he said.
All 10 people on board the plane were adults, and the flight was a
regularly scheduled commuter trip, according to Lt. Ben Endres of the
Alaska State Troopers.
Two people who died in the crash were on a work trip for a non-profit
tribal health organization, according to Alaska’s News Source. The other people’s names have not been released.
Local, state and federal agencies had assisted in the search effort,
combing stretches of ice-dotted waters and scouring miles of frozen tundra.
The National Transportation Safety Board was sending nine people to the
scene from various states.
Flying is an essential mode of transportation in Alaska due to the
vastness of the landscape and limited infrastructure. Most communities
are not connected to the developed road system that serves the state’s
most populous region, and it’s common to travel by small plane.
Some high school teams fly to sporting events against rival high
schools, and goods are brought to many communities by barge or by air.
The plane's crash marks the third major U.S. aviation mishap in eight
days. A commercial jetliner and an Army helicopter collided near the
nation’s capital on Jan. 29, killing 67 people. A medical transportation plane crashed in Philadelphia on Jan. 31, killing the six people on
board and another person on the ground.
Bering Air serves 32 villages in western Alaska from hubs in Nome,
Kotzebue and Unalakleet. Most destinations receive twice-daily scheduled flights Monday through Saturday.
Unalakleet is a community of about 690 people about 150 miles (about 240 kilometers) southeast of Nome and 395 miles (about 640 kilometers)
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 1,000-mile (1,610-kilometer) Iditarod. The
city said prayer vigils would be held Friday for those on board the
plane, friends and family and those involved in search efforts.
https://www.11alive.com/article/news/nation-world/search-underway-for-plane-carrying-10-people-alaska/507-a1d4969f-b001-4052-8119-838ff14701c0?ref=exit-recirc
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