Rescuers searching for a small plane that went missing found the wreckage in western Alaska Friday near its last known location, MLive reported. U.S. Coast Guard officials said that all 10 individuals on board were dead.
The single-engine Cessna Caravan plane operated by Bering Air was headed from Unalakleet to Nome Thursday when it went missing. On board were nine passengers and the plane's pilot.
Less than an hour into the flight, officials lost contact with the plane for unknown reasons as the weather conditions were light snow and fog with a 17 mph wind when the plane went down. The U.S. Civil Air Patrol was able to piece together radar data from the time the plane went missing.
Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Benjamin McIntyre-Coble said that "some kind of event which caused them to experience a rapid loss in elevation and a rapid loss in speed" at that time. "What that event is, I can’t speculate to," McIntyre-Coble added.
The Coast Guard sent a helicopter to investigate, which led to the discovery of the crash site on sea ice. McIntyre-Coble reported no distress signals were received from the plane, including from a device meant to transmit if exposed to seawater.
With no survivors, the mission changed from rescue to recovery Friday. As CNN reported, Nome Volunteer Fire Chief Jim West said authorities were working to "bring folks home" from the twisted wreckage.
"We don’t know how long that’s going to take. It could go hours; it could go potentially days," West told reporters.
"Coming up to tomorrow, we have 18 hours of potential recovery time," he added. The area is experiencing a winter storm that moved through Saturday and is expected to last through Sunday.
Sad end to the hunt for the missing Bering Air Cessna Caravan. https://t.co/qpG3800Bwt @bobmackin @Borrowed7Time @thenewarea51 @Osinttechnical pic.twitter.com/dnuw14ei56
— Peter Vogel (@PeterVogel) February 8, 2025
The city of Nome hosted a vigil for the crash victims on Friday at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church. "In the coming days, in the weeks, as we begin to hear of which families are impacted, our hearts are going to break over and over, and it’s okay to mourn and grief, but please do not isolate," pastor Amanda Snyder told mourners.
Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski joined the vigil on a video call and expressed her condolences. "Words can’t express the loss we’re all feeling; we’re all connected in so many ways," Murkowski said.
"It’s hard to accept the reality of our loss," she added. Because of the punishing landscape, Alaskans routinely take the kind of flight as the ill-fated aircraft to move through the state. "It’s just heartbreaking. Because every single person in this room has been on one of those planes, it hits home," Snyder told the local newspaper.
This crash marks the third in less than two weeks as the White House examines the safety of air travel in the U.S. A passenger jet and military helicopter collided in Washington, D.C., which led to President Donald Trump's renewed scrutiny of air travel hiring and practices.
Air travel is relatively safe, but accidents are catastrophic when they happen. There will be a full investigation to determine what happened and hopefully to prevent future crashes like this one.
