(CNN) — A search of Alaskan waters is underway in rough weather after a regional airline flight with 10 people on board went missing, according to local and state officials.
The Cessna aircraft, operated by Bering Air, was en route Thursday from Unalakleet to Nome, cities in western Alaska separated by the Norton Sound inlet, according to the Alaska State Troopers. The state police agency was notified at 4 p.m. “an overdue aircraft” had gone missing with nine passengers and a pilot on board, it said in a news release.
The Nome Volunteer Fire Department was conducting ground searches from Nome and White Mountain but was limited in air searches due to poor weather and visibility, it said on Facebook. The US Coast Guard and US Air Force stepped in to help, with flights planned to scope out the area and try to locate the missing aircraft, the department said.
Bering Air is based in Nome and serves more than 30 local communities, according to its website.
The search comes as US air safety is under scrutiny as investigators probe two deadly incidents from last week: a January 29 midair collision of a US military Black Hawk helicopter and a passenger jet near Washington, DC, that left 67 people dead; and a January 31 crash of a medevac jet in Philadelphia that killed seven.
The plane missing in Alaska, a Cessna 208B Grand Caravan, was last seen over the Norton Sound around 3:16 p.m., data from flight tracker FlightRadar 24 shows. It was about 12 miles offshore when its position was lost, according to the Coast Guard.
The plane’s pilot had told air traffic control that he intended to enter a holding pattern while waiting for a runway to be cleared, the Nome Volunteer Fire Department said.
On Thursday evening, conditions around Nome Airport included light snow and freezing drizzle. At one point, visibility was down to half a mile, with forecasts of wind gusts up to 35 mph overnight.
“If that bad weather coated the wings with ice … the performance of the aircraft would degrade, and it could stall and crash,” CNN aviation analyst Miles O’Brien said Friday morning. “But there are places where the ice (in the sea below) is actually thick enough to support the craft, so that should give searchers some bit of hope.”
The fire department urged the public not to form their own search parties due to the weather and safety concerns.
The FBI is assisting the search with technical resources, including working to geolocate cell phones of the plane’s passengers, a bureau spokesperson told CNN. FBI field offices have personnel specially trained in analyzing cellular telephone tower data, which can assist authorities in geolocating the last registered location of a device.
The flight tracker also showed a Coast Guard HC-130 flying near the plane’s last known location on Thursday evening, with the fire department saying it carried “specialized equipment for search and rescue that enables them to locate objects and people through no visibility conditions.”
The National Guard and the Air Force each had a C-130 searching, also, but neither had reported seeing the missing craft as of 12:30 a.m. local time Friday, the fire department said.
“Staff at Bering Air is working hard to gather details, get emergency assistance, search and rescue going,” said David Olson, director of operations for Bering Air, the Associated Press reported. CNN has sought comment from Bering Air, which has been operating in Alaska since 1979.
Hospitals were gearing up in case they needed to respond, with the Norton Sound Health Corp. “standing ready to respond to a community medical emergency,” it said. The Norton Sound Regional Hospital also set up a family center for loved ones of the passengers to gather while waiting for news.
US Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska posted about the incident: “We are hearing reports of a possible missing plane en route to Nome. Our thoughts and prayers are with the passengers, their families and the rescue crew.”
CNN’s Robert Shackelford, Amanda Jackson, Josh Campbell, Jeremy Harlan and Martin Goillandeau contributed to this report.
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