Alaska

Alaska plane crash updates: 10 people believed dead; crews work on recovery

Published

1 year ago

February 8, 2025

Alaska plane crash updates: 10 people believed dead; crews work on recovery

A search for a missing plane carrying ten people has ended with the discovery of wreckage in Alaska, and authorities believe there are no survivors as crews plan to work Saturday to recover the bodies.

The Cessna 208B Grand Caravan aircraft operated by Bering Air dropped off the radar on Thursday afternoon after experiencing a rapid loss of altitude and speed over the Norton Sound on the western coast of Alaska, Lt. Benjamin McIntyre-Coble with the U.S. Coast Guard said Friday.

A massive search over land and sea by state and federal agencies lasted for the next day in challenging weather conditions before officials said Friday that they discovered the mangled plane over ice 34 miles from Nome, where the plane was supposed to land on Thursday.

Search crews found three people dead amid the wreckage and presumed the other seven were also dead, but said they were inaccessible because of the condition of the plane, the Coast Guard said. Recovery efforts were paused with the loss of daylight on Friday and would resume Saturday, according to the Nome Volunteer Fire Department.

“From reports we have received, the crash was not survivable. Our thoughts are with the families at this time,” the fire department said.

The identities of the victims hadn’t been released yet on Saturday, but Alaska State Trooper Lt. Ben Endres said Friday afternoon in a news conference that all occupants were adults on a regularly scheduled commuter flight. Families had been notified by Friday morning.

The latest crash comes as U.S. air travel and aviation faces increased scrutiny following the collision of a passenger plane and a military helicopter outside Washington, D.C., that killed 67 people and the fatal crash of a Medevac jet in Philadelphia that killed seven people and injured more than 20 others.

What to know about the plane, area it went missing

The aircraft was operating between parts of the state that aren’t accessible by land vehicles and roads. It was traveling from Unalakleet, Alaska, to Nome, Alaska, a flight that should take less than an hour. Here’s what to know about the area and the plane:

The plane’s location: According to live flight-tracking website FlightRadar24, the plane’s last known position before it went missing was over the water, 38 minutes after leaving Unalakleet.

Bering Air: Bering Air is a family-owned airline headquartered in Nome. Its website says it’s been operating since 1979 and offers scheduled regional service, charter flights and cargo transport. That includes scheduled service to both Nome and Unalakleet, which are about 150 miles apart in western Alaska, by the Bering Sea. It operates planes and helicopters.

Nome, Alaska: Nome is famous for being a gold rush town and the end of the Iditarod Sled Dog Race. The city of roughly 3,700 people is only accessible by dog sled, snowmobile, water and plane, according to the Nome Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Unalakleet, Alaska: Travel Alaska’s website describes Unalakleet as the southernmost Iñupiaq village in Alaska. It has a population of around 800 people. The village is only accessible by plane, according to the Bureau of Land Management.

Plane model: The missing plane was a Cessna 208B Grand Caravan EX with tail number N321BA, according to FlightRadar24. Cessna’s website says, “The Grand Caravan® EX turboprop was engineered for challenging missions, high payloads and short, rough runways while delivering single-engine economy and simplicity.”

-Eve Chen

Weather, poor visibility complicated search

The Coast Guard said it wasn’t yet known what caused the plane to lose altitude and speed on Thursday. Results of a full investigation may not be revealed for some time.

Though officials can’t say for sure what happened, McIntyre-Coble with the Coast Guard noted that weather conditions were not ideal when the plane vanished. One Alaska National Guard helicopter helping in the search was unable to reach the area on Thursday because of poor weather, he said.

It was about 3 degrees in the air, and the water was about 29 degrees, McIntyre-Coble said Friday.

“Hypothermia and cold-water shock are a major concern for first responders and officials working on search and rescue operations near or on the water,” AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Tom Kines said.

Snow and freezing fog were reported in the plane’s flight path on Thursday, with visibility between 1 and 7 miles where it departed and half-a-mile to 8 miles where it was supposed to land, Kines said.

How could a plane go missing?

Though aerial incidents involving fatalities are rare, smaller accidents happen frequently throughout the country, and sometimes aircraft stop sending signals about where they are, said aviation attorney and former Air Force navigator Jim Brauchle.

“When the communication is gone and they can’t identify where the aircraft is or talk to somebody on the radio, then that’s how they’ll classify the aircraft as missing,” Brauchle said.

That’s a less frequent problem today thanks to technology called Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast, or ADS-B, which is required on all aircraft and broadcasts location data to air traffic controllers. Still, “it happens,” Brauchle said.

Airplanes fly with a transponder, which sends continuous data on its current altitude, airspeed, latitude and longitude to receivers on the ground. If the the transponder stops sending signals, it could be because of an electrical failure or a problem with the transmitter itself, Brauchle said.

In Alaska, many people get around on small planes, and the state has a disproportionately high number of accidents compared to the rest of the country, according to the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health.

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Alaska

Alaska lawmakers roll out draft compromise tax cut bill for the proposed AKLNG gas line

Published

2 hours ago

July 3, 2026

Press Room

Alaska lawmakers roll out draft compromise tax cut bill for the proposed AKLNG gas line

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Alaska

Alaska is celebrating America’s 250th in the fast lane… off a cliff

Published

12 hours ago

July 2, 2026

Press Room

Alaska is celebrating America’s 250th in the fast lane… off a cliff

Alaska celebrates the Fourth of July with a unique tradition by launching cars off a 300-foot cliff.

For a moment, everything goes quiet as hundreds of eyes fixate on a patriotic, painted car perched at the edge of a 300-foot cliff. An American flag waves in the crisp Alaskan air as spectators wait in anticipation to witness one of the nation’s most unusual Fourth of July spectacles.

Within seconds, cheers echo across the mountain valley as a vehicle soars through the sky before plummeting down below. All in the name of celebrating freedom.

In Glacier View, Alaska, about two hours north of Anchorage, celebrating America’s Independence Day makes fireworks a thing of the past. Since 2005, visitors have gathered from across the country to witness The Glacier View Fourth of July Car Launch.

Volvo and a moose

The tradition began after founder Arnie Hrncir’s wife hit a moose with her Volvo in 2003. After years of not knowing what to do with the damaged vehicle, they decided, why not just throw it off a cliff?

There it all started, a Fourth of July event that has evolved from a small community coming together to witness the Volvos plummet into one of Alaska’s most distinctive Independence Day traditions.

Hrncir said the event is a great way to celebrate freedom, especially with “that beautiful red, white and blue flag waving up there in the majestic skies of Alaska.” One could assume the best part of the event is watching the vehicles soar, but it’s really the race up the cliff to collect car scraps to take home as a souvenir.

Attendees walk away each year with car stereos, rear-view mirrors, and side doors to cherish the unforgettable day.

Hrncir expects this year’s crowd to surpass previous years with a U.S. Coast Guard flyover, brisket, and many ready to commemorate America’s 250^th anniversary.

Fireworks may be the traditional way to celebrate America’s birthday, but in Alaska, 250 years call for something with a little more horsepower and significantly fewer surviving vehicles.

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Alaska

Fostering 48 parakeets: Alaska’s senior boom strains bird rescue groups

Published

22 hours ago

July 2, 2026

Press Room

Fostering 48 parakeets: Alaska’s senior boom strains bird rescue groups

Parakeet cages filled a room in a modest house in South Anchorage. The birds’ chattering and chirping mixed with country music coming from a boombox below the cages.

As the music swelled at the refrain “Somebody pour me a drank” the birds’ chirping increased, followed by loud squawks.

The sound keeps them company, Karen Rappe said. She hasn’t tried out other kinds of music.

“They get country, and that’s it,” she said, laughing.

Rappe is retired, and has fostered parakeets for years, but right now she has more than usual.

That’s because one man decided to let his birds mate, uncontrolled, she said.

“You start out with two or four,” she said, “and pretty soon you’re pushing 50.”

Matt Faubion

Alaska Public Media

Karen Rappe stands in her parakeet room. Amber Morris affectionately calls her ‘Budgie Karen’ because the birds are budgerigars, known as ‘budgies’ to the rest of the world.

It’s part of a larger problem. It’s getting increasingly hard to find homes for cage birds like parakeets, parrots and macaws. The situation’s not entirely new though. People get the birds without realizing quite how loud they are, or how high maintenance they can be. But now, the problem is getting worse because in Anchorage, and around the state, the senior population has more than doubled in the last 15 years.

When older people go into assisted living, die, or move down South, their birds often need a new home. The original owner of those 48 parakeets moved South, Rappe said. She found homes for the first batch of 20 earlier this year. They were babies, she said. They were cute and easy to adopt out. She’s working through the rest now, but it’s slow going. The parakeet market is flooded, she said.

Amber Morris is with the Alaska Bird Club, which helps rescue and rehome cage birds like macaws and cockatiels. The man called the club, she said, asking for help rehoming the parakeets when he realized he couldn’t keep them. It’s something she’s seeing more and more.

“Birds owners are leaving them, not necessarily by choice,” she said.

In the past, she said, it was more common for the club to rehome birds when young people went away to school. Sometimes owners developed allergies, or gave the birds up when they got married. But over the last decade more and more elders are needing to rehome their birds.

It’s an issue everywhere, she said.

“It’s not just our populace in Alaska that’s getting older,” she said. “So there are a lot of people who are relinquishing birds. There are a lot of homeless birds.”

The bigger birds can live a long time, she said, 80 to 90 years. That’s a lot of life left when elderly people can’t take care of their parrots or cockatiels anymore.

When a bird needs a new home, the club writes up what Morris calls a “singles ad.” Sometimes that’s easy, if the bird is beautiful, cuddly and has a sparkling personality. Sometimes, it’s not.

The thing about birds, Morris said, is they’re a very…specific type of pet.

Some parrots can scream really loudly. In your house, she said, that’s not always fun.

And they’re messy.

“Birds don’t have lips, and so whenever they eat, food goes everywhere,” she said.

But they can be wonderful for the right person, Morris said.

“It makes you look a little less crazy when you talk to a pet that actually can talk back to you,” she said.

They’re beautiful, they can be very snuggly and they’re interesting to watch, she said. And they’re great imitators: they might cry like a baby or offer to take the dog for a walk.

But it is important to find the right fit, Morris said. They can have strong personalities, like the African grey parrot a few years ago that really hated women. A real misogynist, Morris said. But it worked out, she said, because soon afterward, a gay couple applied to adopt the parrot.

Generally, Morris said, she worries less about the parakeets. They’re easier to rehome because they’re less loud, less messy and less of a commitment in terms of lifespan. They’re great for people who don’t have experience with birds.

Bigger birds, like cockatoos, macaws and African grey parrots, are the hardest to adopt out, Morris said. They are not starter birds. That’s especially true when they’ve been living with someone for a long time, like when older people have to give up their birds, or die.

But sometimes the bird can’t be rehomed, Morris said. That’s what keeps her up at night, worrying.

She’s thinking about the birds she’s seen living in dark garages, or in closets with the door shut.

But Karen Rappe, standing in her bird room, said she doesn’t think it’ll come to that for the parakeets.

“Eventually homes will come,” she said. “I’m hoping.”

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