A plane crash in Alaska, USA, on 6 February 2025 has killed all 10 people on board, according to official statements. The Bering Air regional flight was on its way from Unalakleet, a small city on the Norton Sound coast, to Nome – a city around 230 km (145 miles) to the northwest and only accessible by air, water or snowmobile, since it is not on the highway system.
The plane, a Cessna Grand Caravan, went missing on Thursday when it lost radio contact and was found on Friday about 54 km (34 miles) from its destination. The bodies of its nine passengers have all now been recovered from the wreckage and identified by Alaska State Troopers. They ranged in age from 34 to 58 years of age and were all Alaskan residents. The pilot, also killed in the crash, was named as Chad Antill, aged 34.
The Alaska State Troopers, @NTSB, and @AKNationalGuard aircraft and personnel completed recovery efforts at the site of the Bering Air crash today. Read more at: https://t.co/GB7IaRNmQQ pic.twitter.com/lnV2LxSbap
— Alaska State Troopers (@akstatetrooper) February 9, 2025
Rapid loss of elevation and speed
US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chair, Jennifer Homendy, told press that following the recovery of the victims, the Board would be investigating the crash. Initial reports from the US Coast Guard indicated at a press conference that the “aircraft experienced some kind of event which caused them to experience a rapid loss in elevation and a rapid loss in speed.”
The incident comes just one week after a commercial American Airlines flight was hit by a military helicopter on operations over Washington D.C., killing 67 people in what is the deadliest crash in US aviation for nearly a quarter of a century. Not only are people shaken and grieving in Alaska, a state described by Senator Lisa Murkowski as “a big small town”, but across the US the two incidents in quick succession have raised alarm.
Human perception of risk does not match reality
The country has been dealing with a well-documented shortage in air traffic control staff and a number of manufacturing safety concerns for some time. After President Donald Trump disbanded a suite of key aviation and coastal security bodies following his election, some observers are disturbed but not surprised by fatalities they had predicted would follow.
Nonetheless, an Independent report notes that aviation accidents and especially the risk of dying in one, remain extremely small – so small in fact that, putting aside long-term environmental effects, the odds of death resulting from aircraft travel are “too rare to calculate”. Meanwhile the odds of a US citizen dying in a road traffic accident are about 1-in-93, National Safety Board and Department of Transportation statistics show.
The problem is that, in general, the human perception of risk does not align with reality, in a world where fatal car crashes are so frequent they go unreported while aviation incidents hit the headlines every time.
US Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy, speaking to Fox News, summed up the situation following the American Airlines crash, saying that all deaths are “unacceptable” but pointing out that air travel is “way safer than traveling in a car and train. This is the safest mode of transportation.” Whether would-be flyers will agree, as the US awaits the implementation of hundreds of previous safety recommendations, remains to be seen.
