The NTSB on Thursday released its final report on the crash of Bering Air Flight 445 last year, which killed all 10 people on board.
The agency determined that competing demands on the pilot’s attention degraded their situational awareness, leading to airspeed decay until the airplane operating the flight, a Cessna 208B Caravan, entered an aerodynamic stall, from which the pilot did not recover.
The Cessna Caravan was also above its maximum gross weight, the NTSB found, which left “less room for recovery.”
Flight 445 was on the final leg of a scheduled commuter service to Nome, Alaska, on Feb. 6, 2025, when it lost altitude and crashed into pack ice in Norton Sound. The pilot and all nine passengers were killed.
After analyzing archived electronic data from the airplane’s avionics systems, the NTSB determined that the flight encountered more severe icing conditions than were initially forecast. While the onboard ice protection system worked as intended and prevented dangerous buildup, investigators said, managing the system increased the pilot’s workload and contributed to their reduced awareness of the airspeed.
The NTSB also found that Bering Air’s flight risk assessment and operational control procedures failed to prevent “routine overweight operations” at the airline. Officials identified a pattern of “underreported aircraft weights on company load manifests,” with several flights operating above weight limitations.
Another contributing factor was the FAA’s failure to step up oversight of Bering Air. Increased scrutiny would have been warranted by the airline’s rapid growth in the period leading up to the crash, and the increasing complexity of its operations, the NTSB said.
The agency issued several new safety recommendations to the FAA stemming from the crash, including a call for most charter, air taxi, and fractional ownership operators to provide pilots with training on how to prevent and recover from a loss of control in flight.
The NTSB also restated previous recommendations calling for certificated dispatchers for most Part 135 operators; expanded use of flight data monitoring programs; broader load manifest requirements for Part 135 operations; and crash-resistant flight recorder systems for certain aircraft.
“The tragedy of Flight 445 was not the result of a single failure, but a series of preventable breakdowns that eroded critical safety margins,” NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said in a statement. “I’ve seen how Alaskan communities use aviation as a lifeline. Once implemented, our recommendations will make that lifeline safer and prevent other communities from experiencing similar heartbreak.”
Bering Air is headquartered in Nome and operates short-haul commuter flights within Alaska.
