JUNEAU, Alaska, USA (AP) — A small passenger plane that crashed in western Alaska while en route to the central community of Nome was located on Friday on the sea ice, and the 10 people on board died, authorities reported.
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Mike Salerno, spokesperson for the United States Coast Guard, said that the rescue teams were searching for the aircraft's last known location by helicopter when they spotted the wreckage. Two rescue swimmers descended to investigate.
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What is known about the accident?
Bering Air's single-engine turboprop plane was traveling from Unalakleet on Thursday afternoon with nine passengers and one pilot, according to the Alaska Department of Public Safety.
The Cessna Caravan departed from Unalakleet at 2:37 in the afternoon, and authorities lost contact with it less than an hour later, as stated by David Olson, director of operations at Bering Air. There was light snow and fog, with a temperature of 8.3 degrees Celsius below zero (17 degrees Fahrenheit), according to the National Weather Service.
The Coast Guard said the plane disappeared about 48 kilometers (30 miles) southeast of Nome. The plane was located 19 kilometers (12 miles) from the coast, according to the coast guard.
It was operating at its maximum passenger capacity, according to the airplane's description provided by the airline.
The radar forensic data provided by the Civil Air Patrol of the United States indicated that around 3:18 in the afternoon on Thursday, the plane had "some kind of event that caused them to experience a rapid loss of altitude and a rapid loss of speed," said Coast Guard Lieutenant Commander Benjamin McIntyre-Coble. "What that event is, cannot be speculated."
McIntyre-Coble said he was not aware of any distress signal from the aircraft. Airplanes carry an emergency locator transmitter. If it is exposed to seawater, the device sends a signal to a satellite, which then relays that message to the Coast Guard to indicate that an aircraft may be in danger. The Coast Guard has not received any such message.
According to Lieutenant Ben Endres of the Alaska State Police, the 10 people on board the plane were adults and it was a regular short-distance flight.
The disappearance of the plane marks the third major incident in American aviation in eight days. On January 29, a commercial plane and an army helicopter collided near the country's capital, killing 67 people. A medical transport plane crashed in Philadelphia on January 31, killing the six people on board and another person on the ground.
Most communities in Alaska are not connected to the state’s main road network, and planes are often the only option for traveling any distance in rural areas, especially in winter.