Three of the ten passengers aboard a missing airplane in Alaska were found dead after the wreckage of the aircraft was located 54 kilometers beyond its scheduled destination. The United States Coast Guard confirmed the tragic outcome after suspending the search for the aircraft, reporting that the wreckage was found about 54 kilometers southeast of Nome.
"Three people were found inside and were reported deceased," stated the official USCG release. While it is presumed that the other seven occupants are inside the airplane, authorities have been unable to access them due to the state of the aircraft.
Mostly, destinations in Alaska receive scheduled flights twice a day from Monday to Saturday, with the airplane being an essential option for traveling distances in rural parts of the state, especially during winter.
The Nome Volunteer Fire Department confirmed that ground teams are conducting searches along the western coast of Alaska, from Nome to Topkok, due to the weather conditions that hinder aerial search operations.
The missing airplane is a Cessna 208 Caravan operated by Bering Air, transporting nine passengers and a pilot from Unalakleet to Nome, where it was scheduled to land in an environment of 12 degrees Celsius below zero. After reporting the intention to wait to land, contact with the aircraft was lost.
Bering Air provides services to 32 villages in western Alaska, and authorities have discouraged the formation of independent search groups due to the dangerous weather conditions. This aviation accident adds to other recent incidents in the United States, including a collision between a military helicopter and a commercial airplane in Washington, as well as the fatal accident of a medical aircraft in Philadelphia, resulting in a total of 73 fatalities.
