ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Authorities said Friday that a Bering Air plane with 10 people aboard dropped suddenly before it went missing Thursday afternoon on a flight from Unalakleet to Nome.

The U.S. Coast Guard said “some sort of item of interest” was spotted by search aircraft around midday Friday, but the identity of that object or the status of any of the occupants of the plane was not immediately clear.

The Cessna Caravan carrying nine passengers and a pilot disappeared from contact less than an hour after taking off just after 2:30 p.m. Thursday The plane’s last transponder signal came in about 30 miles southeast of Nome, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

The flight path to Nome crosses over Norton Sound, which was frozen but with some open water.

Radar at the time showed that at about 3:18 p.m. Thursday, “this aircraft experienced some type of event, which caused them to experience a rapid loss in elevation and a rapid loss in speed,” Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Benjamin McIntyre-Coble said during a media briefing Friday. “What that event is I can’t speculate to.”

The agency commenced an immediate search and rescue response.

A sweeping air and ground search began Thursday. Police in Nome asked for community members with boats to provide help. The FBI said it was sending resources to Nome to try to locate the missing people via cellphone signal.

The 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 flight path to Nome takes planes over Norton Sound, which is iced over with an area of open water. Thursday’s flight was a regularly scheduled commuter flight with no children on board, troopers said.

The aircraft was 12 miles offshore at its last known location, the Coast Guard said. It was operating at its maximum passenger capacity, according to the airline’s description of the plane.

The plane’s emergency beacon was not communicating a signal, according to a Nome Volunteer Fire Department update Friday morning.

“All families of passengers on the missing flight have been notified,” the update said. “Please keep families in your thoughts at this time.”

The weather was “challenging” when the search began, with air temperatures in the area around 3 degrees and water temperatures in the high 20s, McIntyre-Coble said. The Nome area experienced freezing rain, light snow and fog on Thursday, according to the National Weather Service.

The weather is “looking stable” for the next 24 hours to continue air searches, according to a Nome fire department update midmorning Friday.

McIntyre-Coble described mixed ice conditions, not entirely firm or entirely broken.

On Thursday morning, a roughly 1- to 2-mile-wide lead extended a half mile to a mile offshore in Norton Sound, though it varied with wind and current, according to University of Alaska Fairbanks climate specialist Rick Thoman, who is assisting with the search effort. Beyond that, there was a higher concentration of ice “of moderate thickness with some rafting and buckling,” Thoman said Friday.

Bering Air canceled all flights Friday.

The company serves 32 villages in Western Alaska from hubs in Nome, Kotzebue and Unalakleet. Most destinations receive twice-daily scheduled flights Monday through Saturday.

The missing plane marks the third major aviation incident in the U.S. in just over a week. The midair collision of a commercial jet and a U.S. Army helicopter over the Potomac River killed 67 people on Jan. 29. Six people on board and a person on the ground died when a medical transport plane crashed in Philadelphia on Jan. 31.

Members of Alaska’s congressional delegation — U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan and U.S. Rep. Nick Begich III— posted messages of prayer and support late Thursday and early Friday.

A post Friday morning from Gov. Mike Dunleavy said he and his wife, Rose, were “heartbroken by the disappearance of the Bering Air flight over Norton Sound. Our prayers are with the passengers, the pilot, and their loved ones during this difficult time.”

Sullivan said in a separate post that Sean Duffy, the new U.S. transportation secretary, “is committed to deploying resources” from the U.S. Department of Transportation and Federal Aviation Administration as the search continues. Sullivan also said NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy plans to travel to Alaska this weekend.

The city of Nome is planning multifaith prayer vigils Friday afternoon and evening.

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