Search and rescue efforts continued in Alaska on Friday after a Bering Air flight with 10 people on board went missing Thursday near Nome, Alaska.

The U.S. Coast Guard reported on social media at 7:18 a.m. Friday that a helicopter search between Nome and White Mountain failed to find the plane. 

The aircraft’s last transmitted location was 12 miles offshore over Norton Sound and 30 miles southeast of Nome, the Coast Guard said.

Bering Air Flight 445, a single-engine Cessna, took off from Unalakleet Airport headed for Nome Airport at 2:39 p.m. Thursday, according to FlightAware.

Nine passengers were on board along with the pilot, the Alaska State Troopers said in an alert.

A half hour into the flight, after cruising at 8,100 feet at 173 mph, the plane began to descend. It was flying at 3,400 feet at 115 mph when it dropped off the radar, according to FlightAware.

The plane was due in Nome just 10 minutes after it disappeared. Since snow was in the area, the pilot was going to keep flying the plane in a holding pattern until the runway was clear, Nome Volunteer Fire Department Chief Jim West Jr. told Alaska Public Media.

The search efforts include other helicopters, a pair of Bering Air twin-engine planes, a Coast Guard buoy tracking ice movement out on the water and groups of searchers working on land, the Nome Volunteer Fire Department said on Facebook.

“We’re hoping [the plane] is on land. Being in the water would be the worst-case scenario,” White Mountain Fire Chief Jack Adams told Anchorage’s KTUU-TV.

Weather conditions are expected to remain stable enough to let participating aircraft operate unabated the rest of Friday into Saturday morning, fire officials said.

No one on board the plane has been publicly identified, though their families have been informed of their disappearance, the officials said.

• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.