Saturday, February 8

A small Alaska passenger plane that recently disappeared with 10 people onboard was found yesterday on the sea ice, and the crash had no survivors.

The aircraft was a regional flight operated by Bering Air traveling from the town of Unalakleet to Nome, two ports along Alaska's western coast, and 9 passengers and a pilot were onboard the Cessna 208B Grand Caravan during the crash. The flight disappeared on Thursday afternoon, and search parties began fanning out across the mountainous, icy area to try and find it.

After searching through mountains, valleys, forests, and the miles of sea ice on the ocean, the plane was found around 12 miles off the coast and 34 miles away from its destination of Nome. Local authorities were able to determine that the plane had experienced some sort of issue that had caused a deadly plunge into the sea ice, but they are still working on what caused that rapid descent.

Police have also confirmed that the plane did not transmit an emergency signal through its ELT. ELTs, or emergency locator transmitters, are on every single plane, and they are meant to send a signal to a satellite to communicate with local police if the transmitter touches seawater. For an unknown reason, the ELT on the Bering Air flight did not send a signal, bringing about the need for a search operation.

Authorities are currently working to determine the cause of the crash. They believe that it may have been due to the bad weather in the area -- there were snowy conditions, strong winds, and some freezing rain at the time -- but they are still working to find out the cause as they uncover the wreckage of the plane. Unfortunately, recovering all of the wreckage and the bodies may take some time, as the plane's precarious position on broken sea ice means that some pieces or bodies may have sunk to the bottom of the ocean.

Fact of the Day (Reader's Digest): Though people have been bathing for centuries, the modern bathtub actually started off as an animal trough. In 1883, John Michael Kohler took a cast-iron water trough, added four feet and covered it in enamel, creating the type of bathtub people are used to seeing in homes. According to Kohler company lore, the first bathtub was sold to a local farmer for one cow and 14 chickens.

Quote of the Day (Gracious Quotes): The purpose of today’s training is to defeat yesterday’s understanding. (Miyamoto Musashi)

Word of the Day (Merriam-Webster): Malapropism (noun, MAL-uh-prah-piz-um) - A malapropism is an amusing error that occurs when a person mistakenly uses a word that sounds like another word but that has a very different meaning.

In a Sentence: "It's lovely to see all of you on this suspicious occasion," our host said. A flurry of snickers were heard in reply; the malapropism (she had of course meant to call it an "auspicious" occasion) was characteristic.