The search in northwest Alaska intensified Friday for a plane that disappeared with 10 people on board, officials there say. Bering Air Flight 445 — a Cessna 208B Grand Caravan — was carrying nine passengers and a pilot from Unalakleet to Nome when it went missing on Thursday afternoon,

The Cessna Caravan left Unalakleet at 2:37 p.m., and officials lost contact with it less than an hour later, according to David Olson, director of operations for Bering Air. The aircraft was 12 miles offshore, the U.S. Coast Guard said. It was operating at its maximum passenger capacity, according to the airline’s description of the plane.

Search and rescue crews are looking for a Bering Air plane that was reported missing Thursday on its way from Unalakleet to Nome, Alaska.

A plane carrying 10 people seemingly vanished while flying over Alaska’s Norton Sound south of the Arctic Circle, triggering a desperate search along the state’s western coast on Friday.

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.

The Nome Volunteer Fire Department said that it was actively conducting ground searches from Nome and White Mountain to find the missing Bering Air plane.

The US Coast Guard has joined a search for a small airplane with 10 people aboard that went missing along Alaska's west coast during a flight to Nome a day earlier. The Cessna 208B Grand Caravan aircraft was reported missing en route from Unalakleet about 4.

Searchers in Alaska are flying over stretches of ice-covered seas and scouring miles of frozen tundra for any sign of a plane that went missing just south of the Arctic