Plaintiffs ask a judge to toss Bering Air's claims against four people in Flight 445 suits

Two people suing Bering Air over the crash that killed 10 people near Nome last year are asking a judge to throw out the airline's attempt to pull four more people into their cases, people their lawyers call federal employees.

Bering Air Flight 445, a Cessna Caravan flying from Unalakleet to Nome, went down on the sea ice of Norton Sound on Feb. 6, 2025. The pilot and all nine passengers died. Five wrongful-death suits have been filed against the airline in Nome Superior Court this year. The court records don't mention the crash, but the law firm that filed the first one said in February that it arises from it.

In three of them, Bering Air filed third-party claims dated Oct. 22 against four individuals. A third-party claim is how a defendant brings someone else into a lawsuit, arguing that person may be responsible for some or all of the damages.

The court records don't say who the four work for. But the plaintiffs' Oct. 30 motion to strike the claims calls them "Individual Federal Employees." People with the same names, one spelled differently, appear in the National Transportation Safety Board's public docket among air traffic staff interviewed after the crash: three listed as controllers or training instructors at the Federal Aviation Administration's Anchorage center, and one as a representative for a Nome flight service controller. No court record confirms they're the same people. None has a lawyer listed, and as of Thursday afternoon the dockets showed no summons or proof of service for them.

Air traffic control comes up in the NTSB's final report. About six minutes before the crash, a radar controller at the Anchorage center told the pilot Nome's runways were closed for deicing for 10 to 15 minutes and suggested he could "slow down a little bit." The pilot cut power and the plane slowed. He later added power, but about a minute before the crash its speed dropped again and the plane stalled.

But the board concluded in July that air traffic control was not a factor and that its handling of the flight "conformed to required standards and procedures." It blamed the pilot's airspeed management and the plane's overweight operation, with Bering Air's safety management and the FAA's oversight of the airline contributing. Federal law bars using NTSB reports as evidence in civil damage suits.

What happens with the claims could affect where the cases are heard. When federal employees are sued over their work, a federal law known as the Westfall Act lets the U.S. attorney general certify that they were doing their jobs. The U.S. government then takes their place as the defendant, and the case moves to federal court, the U.S. Supreme Court has explained.

The motion asks the judge to strike and dismiss the claims or, alternatively, sever them, splitting them off from the plaintiffs' cases. The court's online records don't include the filings themselves, so neither side's arguments are public there.

The motion was brought by Stacey Moncur and Brigette Hofmann, who share lawyers from Aviation Law Group. Moncur's suit, the first, was filed on behalf of the estate of JaDee Moncur, according to the firm. Bering Air also filed claims against the four in a third suit, Cerda.

The judge agreed Monday to take up the motion quickly. Bering Air filed its opposition Wednesday, and the plaintiffs replied Thursday. There's no ruling yet.

Textron Aviation, which made the plane, is a defendant in three of the five suits. Another, filed Oct. 30 by Whitney Bowers and the estate of Andrew R. Gonzalez, names only Bering Air. Troopers named Andrew Gonzalez among those killed.