Search on for plane with 10 on board that went missing off Alaska

Crews in Alaska are searching for a plane that went missing with 10 people on board Thursday afternoon.

Alaska State Troopers received reports at 4 o’clock local time that a Bering Air Caravan heading from Unalakleet to Nome carrying nine passengers and a pilot was overdue, according to an online statement.

There was no early word on their identities.

It was the third major U.S. aviation incident in eight days. An American Eagle flight and Army Black Hawk helicopter collided and plunged into the Potomac River near Washington, D.C. on Jan. 29, killing all 67 people on the two aircraft. And a medical transportation plane crashed in Philadelphia on Jan. 31, killing the six people onboard and one more on the ground.

Bering Air Director of Operations David Olson said the Caravan left Unalakleet at 2:37 p.m

The Nome Volunteer Fire Department said in a Facebook post that the pilot told Air Traffic Control “he intended to enter a holding pattern while waiting for the runway to be cleared.”

for follow up of the story visits CBS