Crews search for missing Alaska plane with 10 onboard

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Authorities were searching Thursday evening in rural Alaska for an aircraft that went missing while carrying 10 people onboard.

The Bering Air Caravan was reported missing at about 4 p.m. while en route from Unalakleet to Nome with nine passengers and a pilot, according to Alaska’s Department of Public Safety. Officials were working to determine its last known coordinates.

Unalakleet is a community of about 690 people in western Alaska, about 150 miles (about 240 kilometers) southeast of Nome and 395 miles (about 640 kilometers) northwest of Anchorage.

The Nome Volunteer Fire Department said in a statement on social media that it was conducting a ground search from Nome and White Mountain.

“Due to weather and visibility, we are limited on air search at the current time,” it said. People were told not to form their own search parties because the weather was too dangerous.

The National Guard, the Coast Guard and troopers were also helping with the search, according to the fire department.

A Federal Aviation Administration weather camera near Nome appeared to show near-whiteout conditions over several hours Thursday afternoon, according to Alaska’s News Source

Nome, a Gold Rush town, is just south of the Arctic Circle and is known as the ending point of the 1,000-mile (1,610-kilometer) Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

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