The Alaskan countryside outside Anchorage in the summer
A Bering Air Cessna regional aircraft with 10 people on board including crew members went missing over the Bering Sea shortly before it was due to land.
The Cessna plane operated by regional carrier Bering Air had nine passengers and a pilot on board when its position was lost at around 7:20 p.m. ET Thursday, according to the Alaska Department of Public Safety.
It was the third major U.S. aviation incident in eight days. An American Airlines regional flight operating by American Eagle and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter collided over and plunged into the Potomic River near Washington Ronald Reeagan National Airport on January 29 in which all 67 people on the two aircraft were killed. And on January 30, a Med Jets business jet with six people on board crashed in a neighborhood in northeast Philadelphia in the overnight period. All six were killed.
Bering Air Director of Operations David Olson said the Caravan left Unalakleet at 2:37 p.m. The missing plane was traveling to Nome, across the Norton Sound, an inlet of the Bering Sea on the western coast of Alaska. The flight typically takes less than an hour.
An air-and-land search for the Bering Cessna was being conducted by the U.S. Air Force, Coast Guard, and National Guard. It was last week roughly 12 miles (19.31 km) offshore when its position was lost, federal authorities said.
The Nome Police Department said in a statement that it had asked residents with boats to assist in the search. It later reported it had received enough offers of help. The Nome fire department cautioned residents against forming their own search parties given extremely poor weather conditions and visibility in the area.
Bering Air is a U.S. airline headquartered in Nome, Alaska, that operates domestic scheduled passenger and charter airline services. It was founded in 1979 with a single De Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter in its fleet. It currently serves 32 destinations, largely on the northwest coast of Alaska, with a fleet of 27 aircraft and three hubs, namely Nome, Kotzebue, and Unalakleet.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)
