ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Tribune News Service) — The Bering Air flight that crashed near Nome last month, killing the pilot and all nine passengers, was more than 1,000 pounds too heavy for the icy weather it was flying into, according to a National Transportation Safety Board preliminary report released Wednesday.

The crash was the third fatal plane civilian aviation incident in the U.S. in less than a week and one of Alaska’s deadliest in recent decades.

The Bering Air Cessna Caravan left Unalakleet the afternoon of Feb. 6 before disappearing around 3:20 p.m. more than 30 miles southeast of Nome.

Six of the passengers were returning from different jobs in Unalakleet, including a crew working on the water plant and a teaching mentor. Three others as well as the pilot were residents of Unalakleet or Nome.

Freezing rain was reported in Nome at the time. The next day, U.S. Coast Guard rescue swimmers confirmed the deaths of all 10 people aboard Flight 445.

The report provides the first clues into what investigators think may have caused the plane to go down on the sea ice of Norton Sound. The agency won’t issue any official probable cause until at least next year.

A large weather front over Western Alaska was making for icy conditions as the plane came in to land, according to the NTSB report.

Aviation weather advisories issued almost three hours prior to the crash called for “occasional moderate icing” between 2,000 and 8,000 feet, the report said.

The combination of occupants, baggage and cargo put the plane’s weight at takeoff at about 9,865 pounds — about 1,058 pounds over “the maximum takeoff gross weight for flight into known or forecast icing conditions,” the report said.

Such weight limits set by the Federal Aviation Administration are a crucial aspect of aviation safety. The maximum gross takeoff weight generally reflects the heaviest weight at which a plane can safely land.

The plane’s final signal came around 3:20 p.m. that day. Just after 3:10 p.m., the report said, a controller informed pilot Chad Antill that the runway in Nome needed deicing and would temporarily close for 10 to 15 minutes.

At 3:14 p.m., the controller “added if the pilot wanted to ‘slow down a little bit’ to prevent the flight from arriving before the runway reopened, that would be fine,” investigator in charge Timothy Sorensen wrote.

Antill acknowledged the statement and the plane slowed and leveled off at 6,000 feet before descending to 4,000 feet a few minutes later, the report said. Then, about a minute before the plane disappeared, the autopilot was disengaged and the flight’s speed and altitude dropped, it said.

The controller monitoring the flight issued a low-altitude alert at 3:20 p.m., Sorensen wrote. “The controller’s efforts to contact the pilot were not successful, and no further communications were received.”

Satellite tracking data picked up the plane’s final signal at 200 feet, it said.

A Bering Air representative did not immediately respond to a call to the company’s Nome offices on Wednesday.

The federal report released Wednesday said the plane crashed north of a large stationary weather front that stretched west to east, from the Bering Sea into Northwestern Canada.

The plane was equipped with deicing technology and fluid, according to the report.

Weather observations at Nome included “trace icing” starting just before 3 p.m. the day of the crash, it said.

Authorities have said they did not pick up any emergency signals from an onboard transmitter and heard no distress calls from the pilot.

Investigators determined the plane’s emergency locator transmitter became disconnected from the antenna on impact, rendering it inoperable, according to the new report.

Along with multiple factors including weather, officials say the ongoing investigation will include a review by a senior NTSB aerospace engineer of the plane’s performance, including an evaluation of the airplane’s center of gravity location.

Bering Air, in operation since 1979, serves 32 villages in Western Alaska from hubs in Nome, Kotzebue and Unalakleet.

People in multiple small villages served by the longtime Western Alaska air carrier welcomed planes with prayer circles as service resumed several days after the crash.

Residents hold hands in a circle around a Bering Air flight after it landed in Kiana on Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025. A Bering Air flight crashed on Thursday, killing all 10 aboard. (Courtesy Moody Barr) The Bering Air crash appears to be Alaska’s deadliest since 2013, when 10 people died in Soldotna during takeoff of a Rediske Air Inc. charter carrying two families going bear viewing.

It was Bering Air’s first fatal crash since 1987, when the pilot of a cargo flight died near Ambler, according to a federal database.

Killed in last month’s crash were 34-year-old Nome resident Antill and passengers Rhone Baumgartner, 46, of Anchorage; Donnell Erickson, 58, of Nome; Andrew Gonzalez, 30, of Wasilla; Kameron Hartvigson, 41, of Anchorage; Ian Hofmann, 45, of Anchorage; Talaluk Katchatag, 34, of Unalakleet; JaDee Moncur, 52, of Eagle River; Carol Mooers, 48, of Unalakleet; and Liane Ryan, 52, of Wasilla.

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