Alaska
Alaska plane crash updates: 10 people believed dead; crews work on recovery
Plane carrying 10 people goes missing in Alaska
Rescue teams in Alaska were desperately searching over land and ocean Friday after a small passenger plane with 10 people on board went missing as it traveled along the state’s western coast, authorities said.
Fox – Seattle
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.
Alaska
Dozens of vehicle accidents reported, Anchorage after-school activities canceled, as snowfall buries Southcentral Alaska
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Up to a foot of snow has fallen in areas across Southcentral as of Tuesday, with more expected into Wednesday morning.
All sports and after-school activities — except high school basketball and hockey activities — were canceled Tuesday for the Anchorage School District. The decision was made to allow crews to clear school parking lots and manage traffic for snow removal, district officials said.
“These efforts are critical to ensuring schools can safely remain open [Wednesday],” ASD said in a statement.
The Anchorage Police Department’s accident count for the past two days shows there have been 55 car accidents since Monday, as of 9:45 a.m. Tuesday. In addition, there have been 86 vehicles in distress reported by the department.
The snowfall — which has brought up to 13 inches along areas of Turnagain Arm and 12 inches in Wasilla — is expected to continue Tuesday, according to latest forecast models. Numerous winter weather alerts are in effect, and inland areas of Southcentral could see winds up to 25 mph, with coastal areas potentially seeing winds over 45 mph.
Some areas of Southcentral could see more than 20 inches of snowfall by Wednesday, with the Anchorage and Eagle River Hillsides, as well as the foothills of the Talkeetna Mountain, among the areas seeing the most snowfall.
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Alaska
Yundt Served: Formal Charges Submitted to Alaska Republican Party, Asks for Party Sanction and Censure of Senator Rob Yundt
On January 3, 2026, Districts 27 and 28 of the Alaska Republican Party received formal charges against Senator Rob Yundt pursuant to Article VII of the Alaska Republican Party Rules.
According to the Alaska Republican Party Rules: “Any candidate or elected official may be sanctioned or censured for any of the following
reasons:
(a) Failure to follow the Party Platform.
(b) Engagement in any activities prohibited by or contrary to these rules or RNC Rules.
(c) Failure to carry out or perform the duties of their office.
(d) Engaging in prohibited discrimination.
(e) Forming a majority caucus in which non-Republicans are at least 1/3 or more of the
coalition.
(f) Engaging in other activities that may be reasonably assessed as bringing dishonor to
the ARP, such as commission of a serious crime.”
Party Rules require the signatures of at least 3 registered Republican constituents for official charges to be filed. The formal charges were signed by registered Republican voters and District N constitutions Jerad McClure, Thomas W. Oels, Janice M. Norman, and Manda Gershon.
Yundt is charged with “failure to adhere and uphold the Alaska Republican Party Platform” and “engaging in conduct contrary to the principles and priorities of the Alaska Republican Party Rules.” The constituents request: “Senator Rob Yundt be provided proper notice of the charges and a full and fair opportunity to respond; and that, upon a finding by the required two-thirds (2/3) vote of the District Committees that the charges are valid, the Committees impose the maximum sanctions authorized under Article VII.”
If the Party finds Yundt guilty of the charges, Yundt may be disciplined with formal censure by the Alaska Republican Party, declaration of ineligibility for Party endorsement, withdrawal of political support, prohibition from participating in certain Party activities, and official and public declaration that Yundt’s conduct and voting record contradict the Party’s values and priorities.
Reasons for the charges are based on Yundt’s active support of House Bill 57, Senate Bill 113, and Senate Bill 92. Constituents who filed the charges argue that HB 57 opposes the Alaska Republican Party Platform by “expanding government surveillance and dramatically increasing education spending;” that SB 113 opposes the Party’s Platform by “impos[ing] new tax burdens on Alaskan consumers and small businesses;” and that SB 92 opposes the Party by “proposing a targeted 9.2% tax on major private-sector energy producer supplying natural gas to Southcentral Alaska.” Although the filed charges state that SB 92 proposes a 9.2% tax, the bill actually proposes a 9.4% tax on income from oil and gas production and transportation.
Many Alaskan conservatives have expressed frustration with Senator Yundt’s legislative decisions. Some, like Marcy Sowers, consider Yundt more like “a tax-loving social justice warrior” than a conservative.
Related
Alaska
Pilot of Alaska flight that lost door plug over Portland sues Boeing, claims company blamed him
The Alaska Airlines captain who piloted the Boeing 737 Max that lost a door plug over Portland two years ago is suing the plane’s manufacturer, alleging that the company has tried to shift blame to him to shield its own negligence.
The $10 million suit — filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court on Tuesday on behalf of captain Brandon Fisher — stems from the dramatic Jan. 5, 2024 mid-air depressurization of Flight 1282, when a door plug in the 26th row flew off six minutes after take off, creating a 2-by-4-foot hole in the plane that forced Fisher and co-pilot Emily Wiprud to perform an emergency landing back at PDX.
None of the 171 passengers or six crew members on board was seriously injured, but some aviation medical experts said that the consequences could have been “catastrophic” had the incident happened at a higher altitude.
Fisher’s lawsuit is the latest in a series filed against Boeing, including dozens from Flight 1282 passengers. It also names Spirit AeroSystems, a subcontractor that worked on the plane.
The lawsuit blames the incident on quality control issues with the door plug. It argues that Boeing caught five misinstalled rivets in the panel, and that Spirit employees painted over the rivets instead of reinstalling them correctly. Boeing inspectors caught the discrepancy again, the complaint alleges, but when employees finally reopened the panel to fix the rivets, they didn’t reattach four bolts that secured the door panel.
The complaint’s allegations that Boeing employees failed to secure the bolts is in line with a National Transportation Safety Board investigation that came to the conclusion that the bolts hadn’t been replaced.
Despite these internal issues, Fisher claims Boeing deliberately shifted blame towards him and his first officer.
Lawyers for Boeing in an earlier lawsuit wrote that the company wasn’t responsible for the incident because the plane had been “improperly maintained or misused by persons and/or entities other than Boeing.”
Fisher’s complaint alleges that the company’s statement was intended to “paint him as the scapegoat for Boeing’s numerous failures.”
“Instead of praising Captain Fisher’s bravery, Boeing inexplicably impugned the reputations of the pilots,” the lawsuit says.
As a result, Fisher has been scrutinized for his role in the incident, the lawsuit alleges, and named in two lawsuits by passengers.
Spokespeople for Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems declined to comment on the lawsuit.
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