Rescuers searched overnight Thursday and into Friday morning for an aircraft that went missing in icy seas off Alaska. The Bering Air Cessna 208B Grand Caravan EX, carrying nine passengers and a pilot, vanished over Norton Sound, south of the Arctic Circle, on Thursday afternoon. The flight departed Unalakleet at 2:37 p.m., en route to Nome, but lost contact less than an hour later, approximately 12 miles offshore, the Associated Press reported. Search efforts were being hampered by light snow and fog, limiting aerial operations. Ground teams from the Nome Volunteer Fire Department were scouring the coastline from Nome to Topkok. The U.S. Coast Guard, National Guard, and state troopers have joined the search, deploying a C-130 Hercules to survey the area. Authorities have not released the identities of those on board. This incident marks the third major aviation event in the U.S. within eight days after a U.S. Army helicopter collided with a passenger jet that was about to land in Washington, D.C., killing 67, and an air ambulance crashed in Philadelphia, killing seven.
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