Cintia A. , Lebledparle.com
Another air tragedy has occurred in the US, the latest being 10 people aboard a small plane who died in a crash in Alaska. According to BBC News, on Friday, February 7, a Cessna 208B Grand Caravan aircraft operated by Bering Air went missing from radar at about 3:18 p.m. flying from Unalakleet to Nome. It was later found but not in one piece and with no sign of life. The US Coast Guard revealed three bodies were recovered, and the seven others are thought to be inside the wreckage but can’t be recovered due to the state of the aircraft.
One of the contributing factors to the crash of the plane was poor weather as reported by BBC News. Light snow, freezing drizzle, and reduced visibility were in the air at the time of the crash, while strong wind forecasted for that evening, is said to have made flying conditions hazardous. Experts said the plane’s wings could have iced up in the freezing temperatures, causing the aircraft to become out of control before crashing 34 miles southeast of Nome.
Bad weather considerably impeded the search with bad visibility and thus rendering it hard to spot any wreckage. According to officials, the aircraft did not emit an emergency signal. The plane was carrying nine passengers and one pilot, including two employees of the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, the Alaska Department of Public Safety said.
This incident marks the third plane crash in the US within a space of 2 weeks. On January 29, a passenger jet and an helicopter crashed separately, while on January 31, a medevac plane experienced a catastrophic failure mid-air. The authorities have not released any information on the identities of the victims yet, but the Nome Volunteer Fire Department confirmed that all the families have been notified. Investigations into what exactly caused the crash are still ongoing.
