A pilot rescued with two young family members after they survived a night on the wing of an airplane partially submerged in a Kenai Peninsula lake is a student pilot who was not authorized to fly with passengers, according to a U.S. official and federal aviation records.

A powerful snowstorm battered Russia’s Far East Kamchatka Peninsula, grounding flights, stranding motorists, and triggering avalanche warnings in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

A rescue operation has been initiated after an avalanche dragged a helicopter that was on the ground in Abisko National Park, with two persons currently reported missing.