A commuter plane that crashed on sea ice off Alaska, killing all 10 people on board, was half a ton overweight for the weather conditions, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a preliminary report released Wednesday.
The report said the plane was too heavy for conditions that cause icing at the speed and altitude it was flying. A final report is expected later.
The Feb 6. crash was one of Alaska's deadliest plane crashes this century and the third major U.S. aviation mishap in eight days. A commercial jetliner and an Army helicopter collided near the nation’s capital on Jan. 29, killing 67 people. A medical transportation plane crashed in Philadelphia on Jan. 31, killing the six people on board and another person on the ground.
A crashed airplane with three dead people inside was found in Alaska during the search for a flight that went missing Thursday with 10 people aboard, the Coast Guard said Friday.
The Bering Air single-engine turboprop plane was on a regularly scheduled afternoon flight between the community of Unalakleet and Nome, a trip of about 150 miles when authorities lost contact less than an hour after takeoff, David Olson, director of operations for Bering Air, said at the time.
A review of the plane’s contents following the crash indicated that its estimated gross weight at departure was about 9,865 pounds — about 1,058 pounds over the maximum takeoff gross weight for a flight where icing conditions were in the forecast, the report says.
Messages seeking comment Wednesday from the NTSB and from Bering Air, the flight operator, were not immediately returned.
The Cessna Caravan went missing about 30 miles southeast of Nome. After an extensive search, the wreckage was found the following day on a drifting ice floe. The pilot and all nine passengers had been killed.
Radar data provided by the U.S. Civil Air Patrol indicated the plane rapidly lost elevation and speed, but it was unclear why that happened, the U.S. Coast Guard has said. The agency was unaware of any distress signals from the plane.
The plane was flying in an area where moderate icing was possible between 2,000 feet and 8,000 feet and where the weather could be hazardous to light aircraft, NTSB chairperson Jennifer Homendy said at a news conference in Nome last month. She said the plane, which was last spotted on radar at 3,400 feet, had an anti-icing system on its wings and tail, and that the equipment would be examined as part of the investigation.
NTSB preliminary reports don’t usually reveal the cause of a crash since the investigation is still ongoing. A final report, which does usually contain the cause, will be released later.
