10 A.M. NVFD Chief update on the search
Around 10 a.m. Friday morning, Nome Volunteer Fire Department and Search and Rescue Chief Jim West Jr. gave a quick briefing to the Nugget:
The SAR crew out of Nome made it to Topkok this morning, West said. A SAR crew from White Mountain is traveling in on snowmachines and will check the coastline the south.
“We’ve got 24 hours of good weather, this is our chance,” West said.
Bering Air has launched two King Air planes with spotters, flying to the point where the plane was last known and fanning out from there. The C-130 and Black Hawk are flying now.
A member of the SAR team dispatched reported to West there was open water from Topkok to about where the plane’s last known location was. Exact coordinates are not available, but West said, the last know location is according to the Flight Tracker about 18 miles south of Cape Nome.
According to the NVFD the Coast Guard is planning to drop a buoy to track and monitor ice movement to inform the search. The International Guard will help by helicopter.
The crew was briefed on weather from the National Weather Service office in Fairbanks. Over the next 24 hours, near Nome and to the southeast good visibility is expected, with skies mostly clear. Winds are expected out of the east at 10-15 miles per hour.
Over the weekend there is a round of precipitation expected to begin late Saturday, starting as snow and transitioning to freezing rain.
“Saturday and Sunday look quite messy, with a lot of low clouds in the area. Winds increasing out of the east to around 20 miles per hour, and temperatures rising into the upper 30s,” the weather service spokesperson said.
Mike Lawson, a forecaster with the sea ice program said there was first year, shorefast ice extending away from the coast between Nome and Safety, estimated to be 16-20 inches thick.
“Over the course of the next 24 to 48 hours, we’re not expecting a ton of ice movement,” Lawson said.
To the east of Cape Nome there is pretty much open water or grease ice, the grease ice isn’t solid at all and is very thick, Lawson said.
NVFD restrict access to Fire Hall and the NVFD conference room as SAR develops strategy.
Unalakleet:
“We all seem to be just standing down waiting on news; we have the school operating as normal. The city is working but at limited capacity understanding many of our workers were working with men on board,” says Kelsi Ivanoff, city administrator of Unalakleet.
Anna Lionas is at Fire Hall and continues to report from there. Laura Robertson is working the phones and gathering information.