Photo caption: Mendenhall Glacier is one of the many large glaciers that flow from the 1,500-square-mile (3,885-square-kilometer) expanse of rock, snow and ice known as the Juneau Icefield, according to the U.S. Forest Service.
The wreckage of the Bering Air Cessna regional aircraft with 10 people on board including crew members that went missing on Thursday over the Bering Sea shortly before it was due to land has been located by the U.S. Coast Guard.
There were reportedly no survivors.
The aircraft “experienced some kind of event which caused them to experience a rapid loss in elevation and a rapid loss in speed” around 3:18 p.m. local time Thursday, Coast Guard Lt. Commander Benjamin McIntyre-Coble said in a statement to reporters.
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.
The aircraft was found Friday about 34 miles (54 km) southeast of Nome, the flight’s intended destination, according to the USCG.
A photo shared by the Coast Guard shows the aircraft broken into pieces in a snowy terrain. “Our thoughts are with those affected by this tragic incident,” the USCG on social media.
The Berin crash 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)
