The plane, a Cessna caravan, was en route from Alaska’s Unalakleet to Nome when it disappeared from radar.
Authorities announced Friday that the wreckage of a plane that disappeared in Alaska on its way to the hub community of Nome has been found, with all 10 people who were on board dead.
Mike Salerno, a spokesperson for the U.S. Coast Guard, said rescuers were searching the aircraft’s last known location by helicopter when they spotted the wreckage. They lowered two rescue swimmers to investigate.
The plane, a Cessna caravan, was en route from Alaska’s Unalakleet to Nome when it disappeared from radar.
Unalakleet, a small community in western Alaska with a population of approximately 690, is situated about 150 miles southeast of Nome and 395 miles northwest of Anchorage.
According to local media, a Federal Aviation Administration weather camera near Nome captured near-whiteout conditions for several hours on Thursday afternoon.
Radar forensic data from the U.S. Civil Air Patrol indicated that at approximately 3:18 p.m. Thursday, the plane experienced a sudden and rapid loss of altitude and speed, Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Benjamin McIntyre-Coble reported. “What that event is, I can’t speculate to,” he said.
McIntyre-Coble said that no distress signals had been received from the aircraft. Planes are equipped with an emergency locator transmitter that, if exposed to seawater, transmits a distress signal via satellite to the Coast Guard. However, no such signal was detected.
All 10 people on board were adults, and the flight was a routine commuter service, according to Alaska State Troopers Lt. Ben Endres.
With most Alaskan communities off the main road network, air travel is often the only viable option for long-distance transportation, particularly in winter. The area is known for unpredictable snow squalls and high winds.
This incident is the third major U.S. aviation disaster in just over a week. On Jan. 29, a commercial jetliner and an Army helicopter collided near Washington, D.C., killing 67 people. Two days later, on Jan. 31, a medical transport plane crashed in Philadelphia, killing six on board and one person on the ground.
By Tom Ozimek
