VIDEO: Wreckage Of Missing Alaska Plane Found With No Survivors

The regional airline flight that disappeared in Alaska Thursday has been found and all 10 people who were aboard are dead, the US Coast Guard said Friday. The small commuter aircraft was found Friday about 34 miles southeast of Nome, according to the USCG. Two rescue swimmers identified three bodies inside the plane and the seven others “are believed to be inside the wreckage,” but they are inaccessible at this time, USCG Lt. Commander Mike Salerno The Cessna aircraft, operated by Bering Air and carrying nine passengers and a pilot, disappeared Thursday afternoon while heading from Unalakleet to Nome – cities in western Alaska separated by the Norton Sound inlet – according to the Alaska State Troopers. It was about 12 miles offshore when its position was lost, according to the Coast Guard. The aircraft “experienced some kind of event which caused them to experience a rapid loss in elevation and a rapid loss in speed” around 3:18 p.m. local time Thursday, Coast Guard Lt. Commander Benjamin McIntyre-Coble said. A photo shared by the Coast Guard shows the aircraft broken into pieces in a snowy terrain. “Our thoughts are with those affected by this tragic incident,” the USCG said on X. The search for the aircraft had been complicated by the fact that the missing plane had not communicated its position through an emergency transmitter, officials said. Searchers had scoured the snowy ground in the Nome area and sea ice offshore, authorities have said. Poor weather conditions hindered searches by air Thursday, and initial search flights by C-130 crews from the Coast Guard and US Air Force turned up nothing, the Nome Volunteer Fire Department said Friday morning. US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the Federal Aviation Administration “is providing an investigator from the Aviation Safety Office of Accident and Prevention,” as well as local support from the FAA’s aviation safety inspectors. “Say a prayer tonight for the 10 souls who lost their lives on the Bering Air flight in Alaska,” Duffy said in a statement on X. At a news conference Friday before officials said a plane was found, McIntyre-Coble said there was “some sort of item of interest” identified by an aircraft involved in the search efforts, and the Coast Guard was heading to its location.