Wreckage of missing plane in Alaska found; all 10 people aboard are dead, Coast Guard says

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU/Gray News) - The U.S. Coast Guard says a plane located Friday matches the one that went missing with 10 aboard, and there are no survivors.

The U.S. Coast Guard for Alaska posted on X shortly after 2 p.m. Friday that an aircraft “matching the description of the missing plane” was found roughly 34 miles southeast of Nome.

Officials with the Coast Guard said their search for the aircraft officially ended.

Jim West, volunteer fire and ambulance chief in Nome said the plane went down with 10 people on board.

The plane, a Cessna 208B Grand Caravan aircraft owned by Bering Air, was reported to have been flying from Unalakleet to Nome, according to the Nome Volunteer Fire Department.

The flight took off from Unalakleet at 2:37 p.m., according to Bering Air Director of Operations David Olson. Unalakleet is a community of about 690 people in western Alaska, about 150 miles southeast of Nome and 395 miles northwest of Anchorage.

Data from FlightRadar showed a Bering Air flight last reporting information at 3:16 p.m. Thursday over the Norton Sound.

White Mountain Fire Chief Jack Adams said the plane disappeared from the radar somewhere along the coast of Nome to Topkok.

Adams said the sea ice is “kind of jumbled” and hard to traverse, so the ground crews were traveling on the Iditarod trail to help in the search.

Alaska State Troopers reported that the flight had nine passengers and one pilot onboard.

An FAA weather camera located in Nome showed what appeared to be near-whiteout conditions over several hours Thursday afternoon.

The names of the people on board have not yet been released.

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