Nine passengers and a pilot were aboard the plane, which disappeared during a flight from the Unalakleet to Nome. The flight between the two cities in Alaska takes about an hour.
Dropped radio contact with the air traffic pipeline
The plane disappeared from the radar and dropped radio contact with the air traffic management shortly after 15 o’clock, about 10 minutes before the plane would have landed in Nome, writes The New York Times.
The rescue service has urged people not to form their own search groups because the weather is too dangerous with, among other things, poor visibility.
More than 80 percent of communities in Alaska are inaccessible via road, according to Alaska’s Ministry of Transport. Aerial connections, especially those provided by regional airlines, are crucial to obtaining supplies such as fuel and food for residents in the state.
Several flight incidents lately
The disappearance of the aircraft follows several flight disasters in the United States in a short time.
On January 30, a passenger plane collided in the air with a helicopter from the US military in the capital Washington DC. All 67 people on board were killed then.
Dense then an airplane crashed straight into a neighborhood in the city of Philadelphia, after which seven were killed and 19 injured. What caused that accident is not clear.