By admin 
The National Transportation Safety Board on Thursday released the final report for the February 6, 2025, accident involving Bering Air flight 445 that killed all 10 people on board.
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While the NTSB’s report identifies airspeed and load issues as the main causes of the crash, the Alaska aviation community is still reeling over how it could have happened with such a well-trained pilot from a company with an excellent safety record.
The Board determined the crash was caused by the pilot’s inadequate airspeed management and operation above gross weight. It also faulted the company for allowing overweight operations and the Federal Aviation Administration for inadequate oversight.
The Board’s team was composed primarily of investigators from outside the Alaska region, which is not uncommon when an accident is considered significant. But their lack of familiarity with the state’s aviation industry was evident in interviews as they sought to understand daily operations in rural Alaska. They also did not know about Bering Air’s unique reputation as, statistically, one of the safest small commuters in state history.
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While Alaska has had a challenging flight safety record for decades, that was not the case with Bering Air prior to this accident. That is what has made the crash of flight 445 so shocking to the aviation community here, and has led it to more nuanced scrutiny into the cause of this crash.
Airspeed
That February afternoon, Flight 445 departed Unalakleet for Nome at 2:37 p.m. in a Cessna Caravan. Pilot Chad Antill was not an inexperienced pilot, but he wasn’t a seasoned veteran either. He began flying for Bering Air in 2022 and had about 2,500 total hours of flight time with 1,060 hours in the Caravan — flight hours are incredibly subjective as a measure of experience and dependent on a variety of factors including the type of flying, type of aircraft and location. At 3:05 p.m. Nome reported light snow, broken ceiling at 2,700 ft, overcast ceiling at 5,500 ft, and visibility of 10 miles. An icing forecast issued at 1 p.m. noted constant moderate icing between 2,000 and 8,000 feet in the region. Trucks were active on the runway and taxiways to keep surfaces clear for landing aircraft.
Flight 445 initially proceeded without incident and at 3:11 p.m. the pilot contacted Anchorage Center while descending from 7,725 feet for Nome. At 3:13 p.m., according to data obtained after the accident from the onboard Garmin 1000 flight system, the aircraft was flying at 163 knots and 6,575 feet. The Anchorage controller notified Antill that Nome Flight Service was reporting the available runway was closed for 10 to 15 minutes for snow removal and he might want to slow a bit to “not get there too early.”
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