- Date
- February 6, 2025, 15:20, time zone not recorded
- Place
- Nome, AK · Bering Sea / Pan ice
- Injuries
- 10 fatal
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Phase of flight
- Enroute
- Aircraft
- N321BATextron 208B
- Defining event
- Enroute-descent: Loss of control in flight
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed
- Report
- Board-adopted by Notation
- Investigation class
- Class 1
- NTSB office
- Alaska Regional Office
- Parties
- Textron Aviation, Garmin Aviation, Parker Hannifin, Pratt & Whitney Canada, NATCA, Bering Air, Inc., Woodward Inc., FAA Accident Investigation
- Safety recommendations
- Yes
- FAA report
- 20250206001589A
- Case key
- 199662
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Probable cause
The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was the pilot’s inadequate airspeed management due to workload and degraded situation awareness and his improper inputs leading up to and during the aerodynamic stall, which increased the airplane’s angle of attack. Also causal was operation of the airplane above maximum gross weight, which reduced the airplane’s stall margin. Contributing to the accident were the operator’s inadequate safety management, which allowed the routine operation of flights that exceeded weight limitations, and the Federal Aviation Administration’s inadequate oversight of the operator, which failed to identify and address the routine operation of overweight flights.
Findings · 6
NTSB’s coded findings. Those marked are part of the probable cause; the rest are factors or other findings. Under each, the cases with the same finding.
Sequence of events
The events NTSB coded, in order, by phase of flight. The defining event is the one that best describes the accident. Under each, the cases with the same event anywhere in their sequence.
Analysis
On February 6, 2025, about 1520 Alaska standard time, a Textron Aviation 208B airplane, N321BA, operated as Bering Air flight 445, was destroyed when it was involved in an accident near Nome, Alaska. The pilot and nine passengers were fatally injured. The airplane was operated under Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 135 as a scheduled charter flight.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N321BA
- Reported as
- Textron 208B
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 208B5613
- Built
- 2020
- Airframe hours
- 4,333.7
- Engine
- Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-140, 867 horsepower, turbo prop
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Flight
- Part 135
- Operator
- Bering Air Inc, doing business as Bering Air
- Registered owner
- Bering Air Inc
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- 100 hour · January 7, 2025 · 42.4 hours before
- Departed
- PAUN · Unalakleet, AK
- Destination
- PAOM · Nome, AK
- Flight plan
- IFR
- Airport
- N/A
- Equipment
- ADS-B, Auto-pilot, Electronic multifunction display, Electronic primary flight display, Stall warning system
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 34
- Injuries
- Fatal
- Certificate
- Commercial
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land, Single-engine sea
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 1, Without waivers/limitations
- Last flight review
- September 22, 2024
- Seat
- Left
- Restraint
- 5-point
- Toxicology
- Performed
- Flight hours
- 2,500 total · 1,060 in this make and model · 194 in the last 90 days · 58 in the last 30 days · 4 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 0° at 0 knots
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 2,700 ft broken
- Temperature
- 14 °F, dew point 10 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.20 inHg
- Icing
- Clear
- Observed at
- PAOM, 32 nm away
- METAR
- SPECI PAOM 070005Z 00000KT 10SM -SN BKN027 BKN035 OVC055 M10/M12 A3020
Docket · 80
The files NTSB released with the investigation on February 11, 2026, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 1.2 GB in all.
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.