Search under way in Alaska for missing Bering Air plane carrying 10 people

A search for a missing plane carrying 10 people is under way in Alaska.

The Bering Air flight left Unalakleet at 2.38pm on Thursday but contact was lost less than an hour later, the firm’s operations director David Olson said.

Officials are trying to work out its last-known position but the coastguard said the Cessna Grand Caravan was 12 miles offshore as it flew across Norton Sound.

Tracking site Flightradar24 reported it at 5,300ft before contact was lost.

It was travelling from Unalakleet, a community of about 690 people in western Alaska, to Nome, a gold rush town just south of the Arctic Circle.

The flight time is normally just under an hour.

In a post on Facebook, Nome’s fire department said: “We are currently doing an active ground search from Nome and from White Mountain.”

It added: “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.”

Weather in Unalakleet at take-off time was -8.3C (17F) with fog and light snow, according to the US National Weather Service.

Bering Air serves 32 villages in western Alaska and air travel is often the only option of travelling long distances in rural parts of the US state, especially in winter.

“Staff at Bering Air is working hard to gather details, get emergency assistance, search and rescue going,” said Mr Olson.

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It comes soon after two major air accidents in the US in recent weeks.

Sixty-seven people were killed when a jet and helicopter collided in Washington DC and seven died when a medical plane crashed in Philadelphia.