Alaska plane vanishes mid-air sparking desperate search: Live updates

Moments before the Bering aircraft suddenly dropped off flight radars, the pilot of the missing plane was speaking with air traffic control.

According to reports, the pilot told air traffic control that he was entering a holding pattern while waiting for a runway to clear at Nome Airport.

At the same time, severe weather was sweeping the remote region in western Alaska, and officials said the aircraft’s last known coordinates were 12 miles off the coast.

A shocking timelapse video shows the moment a severe winter storm hit Nome, Alaska at the same moment the Bering aircraft dropped off flight radars.

Footage from Nome Airport showed thick snow and frost set in across the area, with officials saying visibility was reduced to less than half a mile.

A pilot shared a chilling look at the kind of tracherous conditions crews are searching through to find the missing aircraft, which officials say is being made more difficult by freezing winter weather.

Pilot Ron Stauffer shared to X that he has ‘taken the exact flight’ that the small Bering aircraft was on when it vanished on Thursday evening, and shared images of the ice-packed waters the plane was traveling over.

White Mountain fire chief Jack Adams said crews are actively searching an area of around 30 miles, but thick sea ice is hampering their ability to scour the waters.

He described the ice-packed area as ‘kind of jumped’, making it difficult for crews to search for the missing aircraft.

‘We’re hoping [the plane] is on land, being in the water would be the worst-case scenario,’ Adams told Alaska’s News Source.

‘There’s zero visibility. Basically, you can’t see anything from the air or the ground, and in the dark looking for something in zero visibility is a tough job.’

The Nome Police Department thanked residents who quickly supported search efforts by providing their boats at the request of officials.

The force said it received an ‘overwhelming’ response to their plea asking for flat-bottomed boats.

‘We have now located a sufficient number of boats,’ the department said on social media hours after the request.

Despite severe weather hampering the search for the missing Bering aircraft, authorities vowed to continue their search until they have answers.

White Mountain fire chief Jack Adams said crews are actively searching an area of around 30 miles and intend to cycle teams to keep the search moving.

‘They’re prepared to be out all night, they will search here until they find them or somebody else finds them,’ he told Alaska’s News Source.

‘If they don’t find anything, we’ll probably rally another crew to go and help.’

Adams added that although crews are searching land and sea, ‘we’re hoping the plane is omn land, being in the water would be the worst-case scenario.’

The Nome Police Department urged the public to help their search efforts for the missing Bering aircraft by supplying their private boats.

‘NPD is requesting assistance locating any community members who own a working flat bottom boat or Jon boat that can assist with search and rescue,’ the force said.

Residents in the remote area jumped at the request, with the cops thanking locals for their ‘overwhelming’ support for the search on Friday.

Although officials asked for boats to help, authorities also urged locals not to attempt to fly over the area to locate the missing plane due to inclement weather.

The Nome Fire Department said in a separate statement on Thursday: ‘We ask the public to please think of those who may be missing at this time, but due to weather and safety concerns please do not form individual search parties.’

The Alaska State Troopers announced Friday morning they were joining the multi-agency search for the missing Bering aircraft.

The troopers join the US Air Force, Coast Guard and local authorities in attempting to locate the plane, which was carrying 10 people when it vanished Thursday night.

‘Search crews are actively looking for this aircraft amid challenging conditions,’ the troopers said in an X post.

‘Please keep the missing individuals, their loved ones and search teams in your thoughts tonight.’

The Nome Fire Department shared SAR imagery showing thick ice has set in across the coastal region where search efforts are focused.

Imagery provided to the department by the NOAA showed significant ice near the shore, where rescue crews say freezing weather has hampered their operations.

Temperatures in the remote area were as low as 15F when the plane dropped off flight radars on Thursday afternoon.

Officials say severe weather is continuing to hamper their search efforts.

The Alaska National Guard said in an X post on Friday morning that a HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopter was forced to turn around before it made it to the search area.

The force said crews ‘searched the area last night for several hours but were unable to locate the missing aircraft.

‘Due to bad weather, the HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopter had to turn back before arriving at the search area.

‘They remain ready to continue support as requested.’

Pictured: A HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopter.

The missing aircraft off the coast of Alaska marks the third major air incident in the last nine days, likely sending nervous flyers into overdrive.

It follows a mid-air collision between an American Airlines passenger jet and a US military Black Hawk helicopter in Washington DC that took the lives of 67 people, and a medical jet crash that killed seven in Philadelphia just two days later.

Licensed aviator and psychotherapist Micaela Renee Johnson told ABC News the repeat incidents could spark fears in nervous flyers.

‘I would say people that are on the fence about whether or not to book that vacation are probably hesitant to do that,’ she said.

‘People tend to immediately think, ‘Uh-oh, they all must be unsafe, and it must be a huge risk for me to fly’ — and they question whether or not they should get on the next flight they have scheduled.’

‘If you already have a fear of flying, then you see something like this, it’s like the monsters under the bed are actually real,’ added psychologist Don Grant.

The pilot of the missing Bering aircraft was speaking with air traffic control in the moments before dropping off flight radars.

He reportedly told air traffic control that he intended to enter a holding pattern while waitinf for a runway at Nome Airport to be cleared, the Nome Fire Department said.

Rescue teams admitted Friday morning they have ‘found nothing’ in their searches for the missing aircraft so far, as officials said treacherous conditions hampered their efforts.

White Mountain Fire Chief Jack Adams said his teams were facing a ‘tough job’ to locate the aircraft amid severe weather.

‘Basically, you can’t see anything from the air or the ground, and in the dark looking for something in zero visibility is a tough job,’ he told Alaska News Service.

Temperatures at Nome Airport, where the flight was intended to land Thursday evening, dipped as low as 17F, with freezing drizzle and snow reducing visibility to just half a mile.

The small airline company that operates the missing aircraft focuses its flights on remote Alaskan towns across the west coast of the state.

Bering Air serves 32 villages, including Nome and Unalakleet that the aircraft was flying between when it vanished from flight radar over the Norton Sound waters on Thursday.

Air travel is often the only way residents in small towns in the region are able to move around, particularly in winter months when severe weather sweeps the area.

The missing Bering aircraft carrying 10 people vanished off radars in an area near to the infamous ‘Alaska Triangle.’

Stretching from Utqiagvik to Anchorage to Juneau, staggering numbers of aircraft have gone down in the remote stretch, with some estimates putting the number of people lost since 1970 at over 20,000.

Residents in remote towns routinely take small aircraft instead of driving or public transport to move around the region, which is often hit with severe weather.

Across the state, from January 1998 to December 2017, Alaska saw a total of 2,257 aircraft crashes – an average of 112 per year.

Officials have not determined what happened to the Bering aircraft that disappeared off flight radars on Thursday night.

Authorities admitted on Friday morning they have ‘found nothing’ in their search for the missing aircraft over remote Alaska.

The Nome Volunteer Fire Department said crews, including officers from the US Air Force and National Guard, have not yet found any sign of the aircraft that was carrying 10 people.

Crews are still ‘canvassing as much area as possible’, but the department said time is running out before they will have to temporarily pause the search efforts.

‘The National Guard C-130 reported they found nothing found so far. The Airforce also sent a C-130 resumed the search and also have reported no visuals, and have one hour of flight search time remaining,’ a statement read.

Residents in remote towns such as Nome and Unalakleet routinely choose to fly between destinations as roads and public transport are often hit with poor weather.

The conditions in Alaska mean the state has a higher than average number of aircraft accidents, and data from NTSB found there are more than one-per-week.

From January 1998 to December 2017, Alaska saw a total of 2,257 aircraft crashes – an average of 112 per year.

Officials have not determined what happened to the Bering aircraft that disappeared off flight radars on Thursday night.

Officials are still searching for 10 people who were aboard the missing Bering aircraft before it vanished.

Details of who was on the flight are yet to be revealed, with officials only noting it comprised of nine passengers and a solo pilot.

Flight data shows the small Cessna 208B aircraft took dozens of flights in the days before it vanished off radars on Thursday evening.

Data from FlightRadar registered at least 23 short flights in the three days before it disappeared flying from Unalakleet to Nome, small remote towns in western Alaska.

The aircraft is a popular option for residents in the remote areas to fly to their destinations, with all of the flights the aircraft registered in the past week lasting under an hour.

As well as Nome and Unalakleet, the aircraft also flew to the small Alaskan towns of St. Michael, Brevig Mission, White Mountain and Stebbins.

The plane that disappeared Thursday night over Alaska was a Cessna 208 Grand Caravan.

The aircraft, operated by Bering, is capable of flying up to 12 passengers, and is a popular aircraft in the area used to ferry people to remote locations.

The plane is able to fly for three hours on a full tank of fuel when fully stocked before it is required to refuel.

Officials warned that severe weather is hampering their efforts to search for the Bering aircraft.

Visibility at Nome Airport was down to only half a mile on Thursday evening, and authorities said they expected wind gusts of over 35 mph.

The inclement weather meant air searches over the White Mountain were being limited, with crews also searching the waters in the Norton Sound inlet where the plane last registered.

The Coast Guard deployed a HC-130 aircraft to aid the search, which is carrying ‘specialized equipment for search and rescue that enables them to locate objects and people through no visibility conditions’, officials said.

The Norton Sound Health Corporation said it is ‘standing ready to respond to a community medical emergency’ amid the ongoing search.

‘A family center is accepting family members and loved ones in the Norton Sound Regional Hospital’s third-floor conference room,’ the institute, a small local hospital based in Nome, said on social media.

Authorities have warned well-intentioned members of the piblic not to join in the search for the missing Bering aircraft due to severe weather conditions.

‘We ask the public to please think of those who may be missing at this time, but due to weather and safety concerns please do not form individual search parties,’ the Nome Volunteer Fire Department said.

‘Families are encouraged to seek support at Norton Sound Health Corporation.’

The small plane was travelling to Nome from Unalakleet in western Alaska on Thursday night when it vanished off radars.

Exact coordinates for the aircraft are still being established, with the Coast Guard deployed to the area to specialized equipment that can ‘locate objects and people through no visibility conditions’, officials said.

Authorities said their last known contact with the pilot was when he told Anchorage Air Traffic Control that he intended to ‘enter a holding pattern’ as he waited for the runway to be cleared.

It is understood the aircraft was 12 miles off shore when contact was lost.

According to data from FlightRadar, the plane – a Cessna 208B – left Unalakleet at 2:40pm, and was last seen over the Norton Sound at 3.16pm.

Unalakleet and Nome are small coastal towns at the western end of Alaska, separated by the Norton Sound inlet.