A crashed airplane with three dead people inside has been found in Alaska during the search for a flight that went missing Thursday with 10 people aboard, the Coast Guard said Friday.
The crashed plane was found around 34 miles southeast of Nome, the Coast Guard said in an update on X.
“3 individuals were found inside and reported to be deceased. Our thoughts are with those affected by this tragic incident,” the Coast Guard said.
The post was deleted shortly after. Attempts to contact the public affairs office for the Coast Guard district that covers Alaska were not immediately successful.
The Coast Guard said in the post that the crashed plane matched the description of a missing Bering Air Cessna Caravan with nine passengers and one pilot on board that took off from Unalakleet, a community on the eastern coast of Norton Sound, on Thursday and was headed to Nome about 140 miles to the west.
The conditions or more information about the seven other people possibly on board were not immediately clear.
The flight took off from Unalakleet at 2:37 p.m. Thursday, Bering Air Director of Operations David Olson told NBC affiliate KTUU of Anchorage.
Radar analysis showed that around 3:18 p.m. Thursday “this aircraft experienced some kind of event which caused them to experience a rapid loss in elevation and a rapid loss in speed,” Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Benjamin McIntyre-Coble said at a Friday news conference.
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy said earlier Friday that he and his wife, Rose, “are heartbroken by the disappearance of the Bering Air flight over Norton Sound.”
“Our prayers are with the passengers, the pilot, and their loved ones during this difficult time,” Dunleavy said in a statement.
Nome and Unalakleet, in the western part of Alaska, are not serviced by the state’s highway system, leaving air and water or snowmobile and trails the main forms of transport between the two.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
