A commuter plane that fell from the sky as it flew over Alaska’s Norton Sound last month was more than 1,000 pounds overweight at the time of takeoff, according to a preliminary report released by the National Transportation Safety Board.
The Cessna aircraft, a single-engine turboprop operated by Bering Air, departed from Unalakleet for Nome — a trip of about 150 miles — on February 7 with nine passengers and a pilot onboard, Alaska’s Department of Public Safety said. Officials lost contact with the plane a little less than an hour after take-off, and it was reported “overdue” by 4 p.m., per a dispatch message shared on the agency’s website.
Search crews located the plane’s mangled remains on an ice shelf just southeast of its destination. There were no survivors, making it one of Alaska’s deadliest plane crashes in recent history.
A subsequent investigation into the brutal crash revealed the small plane was significantly heavier than it should have been, a factor that likely contributed to its eventual doom, according to the NTSB report. At takeoff, the plane — described as an air taxi by the agency — weighed about 9,865 lbs., which is 1,000 lbs. more than “the maximum takeoff gross weight for flight into known or forecast icing conditions,” it said.
NTSB investigators also noted that the aircraft was using a payload extender designed to increase its maximum landing weight. Even with the modifications, however, the Cessna was still some “803 lbs. over the maximum gross takeoff weight for any flight operation under the APE III flight manual supplement,” the report said.
“A senior NTSB 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 location,” the agency said.
While the cause of the crash remains under investigation, radar data provided by the U.S. Civil Air Patrol showed the plane rapidly lost elevation and speed as it closed in on Nome. Officials are still uncertain why it happened, but they have previously said the icy weather conditions could have played a role.
With News Wire Services
