AN AIRCRAFT CARRYING 10 people across Alaska’s Norton Sound south of the Arctic Circle went missing yesterday afternoon.

Rescuers searched into the night for any sign of the aircraft.

The Bering Air Caravan was heading from Unalakleet to Nome with nine passengers and a pilot, according to Alaska’s Department of Public Safety. Authorities were working to determine its last known co-ordinates.

The disappearance marks the third major incident in US aviation in eight days.

A commercial jetliner and an army helicopter collided near the nation’s capital on January 29, killing 67 people. A medical transportation plane crashed in Philadelphia on January 31, killing the six people on board and another person on the ground.

Unalakleet is a community of about 690 people in western Alaska, about 240km southeast of Nome and 640kms northwest of Anchorage. 

The Cessna Caravan left Unalakleet at 2.37pm local time and officials lost contact with it less than an hour later, according to David Olson, director of operations for Bering Air. The aircraft was 19km off shore, according to the US Coast Guard.

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

Bering Air serves 32 villages in western Alaska from hubs in Nome, Kotzebue and Unalakleet. Most destinations receive twice-daily scheduled flights from Monday through to Saturday.

Planes are often the only option for travel of any distance in rural Alaska, particularly in winter.

The Nome Volunteer Fire Department said in a statement on social media that ground crews were searching across the coast, from Nome to Topkok.

“Due to weather and visibility, we are limited on air search at the current time,” it said. People were told not to form their own search parties because the weather was too dangerous.

A US Coast Guard airplane crew was expected to search the missing aircraft’s last known position. The National Guard and troopers were also helping with the search, according to the fire department.

It was minus 8.3C in Unalakleet around take-off, according to the National Weather Service. There was light snow falling and fog.

The names of the people onboard have not yet been released.

Nome is located just south of the Arctic Circle and is known as the ending point of the 1,000-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.