Bering Air plane that crashed in Alaska was overweight before it took off, new NTSB report says
The Cessna Grand Caravan operated by Bering Air as flight 445 crashed about 34 miles southeast of Nome, Alaska, on February 6. It was initially reported missing but was found the next day on ice floating in Alaska's Norton Sound.
The icepack, which was subject to the tidal ocean currents, continuously moved about 5 to 10 miles per day, which complicated search and rescue efforts, the report notes.
The NTSB found the airplane's estimated gross takeoff weight at departure was about 9,865 pounds, which was about 1,058 pounds over the maximum for flights into icing conditions, and more than 800 pounds over the limit for better weather.
There was light snow and traces of ice reported around the time of the crash and the temperature was about 12 degrees.
An examination of the wreckage outlined in the report found the plane was broken apart on impact, but there were signs of icing on the top of the tail.
A senior aerospace engineer will conduct a detailed review of the airplane's performance as part of the investigation, including an evaluation of the airplane's center of gravity, according to the NTSB.
The NTSB also compiled data about the plane's flight path, communications between the pilot and Anchorage Air Traffic Control and data downloaded from the onboard avionics.
This preliminary report does not identify a probable cause of the crash, which usually takes the NTSB a year or longer to determine.
The small commuter aircraft, which took off from Unalakleet, was carrying nine passengers and one pilot when it crashed. The tragedy shook the city of Nome, a community accustomed to travel by small plane across Alaska's vast landscapes.
The crash came just a week after an American Airlines plane and a Black Hawk Helicopter collided in Washington, DC, killing 67 people. That collision, along with the Alaska crash, are two of the deadliest plane disasters of the last decade in the US.
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The relationship between the National Transportation Safety Board, the government entity that investigates civilian airplane accidents, and the Federal Aviation Administration, the agency responsible for aviation safety, can frequently be contentious, especially after a major national tragedy. Last week, a rift between those two main regulators of aviation safety spilled out into public view. Frustrations — and sometimes tempers — flared in uncommonly raw fashion during the board's marathon of investigative hearings into the deadly midair crash between a military helicopter and a commercial jet near Ronald Reagan National Airport in January. Board members grilled witnesses, including air traffic controllers and F.A.A. managers, over three days and 30 hours of public testimony. Jennifer Homendy, the N.T.S.B. chair, led other board members in accusing the F.A.A. of knowingly stymieing efforts to improve safety at Reagan National Airport and stonewalling parts of the board's investigation into the crash. And Ms. Homendy directly accused the agency of fostering a culture among the air traffic control operation that discouraged employees from raising legitimate safety concerns, including by wielding the threat of retaliation. 'There is and always has been a healthy tension between the two agencies,' said Jeff Guzzetti, a former accident investigator for the F.A.A. and the N.T.S.B. And while the level of public outrage on display during board hearings depends largely on the proclivities of its members, he added, 'in this particular case, it's a shift.' Ms. Homendy and the other board members were careful not to direct their ire toward Sean Duffy, the transportation secretary, or Bryan Bedford, the F.A.A. administrator. 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By the last day of the hearings, Ms. Homendy was accusing F.A.A. officials outright of trying to stymie the N.T.S.B.'s investigation by withholding documents and data the board had been requesting for months. 'I think you're interfering in the investigation,' she charged, 'because you're basically telling us 'no' every way you can.' Aviation safety experts said it was understandable for tensions to run unusually high after the collision because of the magnitude and rarity of the tragedy — it was the first fatal crash involving a major American airline in over 15 years. But part of the N.T.S.B.'s visible agitation in the hearings could also be strategic, those experts said. The fact that the crash happened just outside the nation's capital — along with the fact that power brokers from the Trump administration and Congress are eager to respond — has created a unique opportunity for the board to influence sweeping changes. 'The intensity has increased partly because of the visibility of this particular catastrophe and the proximity to Washington,' said Alan Diehl, a former aviation safety official with the N.T.S.B. and the F.A.A. 'By doing that, the N.T.S.B. hopes to convince both the F.A.A. and Congress that we need a revolution,' he added, 'in both personnel policies within the F.A.A. as well as the funding policies.' Ms. Homendy, who spent more than 14 years on Capitol Hill before President Trump nominated her to fill one of the Democratic slots on the board, has a keen understanding of Washington dynamics, according to board watchers. She is known for being more public-facing and, at times, being more comfortable adopting an adversarial posture than some of her predecessors. But she was not alone last week in being pointedly critical of the F.A.A. J. Todd Inman, a Republican member of the N.T.S.B, also accused the agency of stonewalling the investigation. The F.A.A. withheld documents about staffing at the control tower for months, he charged, dumping thousands of pages on the board on the Friday before the hearing, only after Ms. Homendy appealed to agency and Transportation Department leaders for help. At another point, Mr. Inman lost his patience with officials' promises to do better. 'We'd like to be treated privately the same way we are publicly,' he said. Mr. Inman also accused the F.A.A. of refusing to share critical data about real-time flight tracking technology, forcing the safety board to spend $50,000 annually to evaluate it 'because the F.A.A. does not consider N.T.S.B. a trusted government partner.' F.A.A. officials in the hot seat frequently defended their agency. Nick Fuller, the F.A.A.'s acting deputy chief operations officer, responded to allegations that the agency had withheld documents and data by arguing that some of the board's requests had been unclear, and that 'in fact, we just gave you the latest and greatest' information. Mr. Fuller also pushed back on accusations from all three presiding board members that after the Jan. 29 accident, the F.A.A. had removed managers at Reagan National's control tower who had previously raised concerns about traffic, staffing or other safety pitfalls. He argued that staffing changes had not been retaliatory, but rather executed in the interest of solving the problem quickly. 'I was given a task to fix the facility risk between helicopters and fixed wing,' Mr. Fuller said, referring to airplanes, 'and it wasn't to work through a collaborative process and allow a few months — it was to get the job done immediately.' 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