‘I will not dishonor her’: Widower refuses to sue Bering Air despite safety concerns

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ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - The husband of one of 10 people killed on Bering Air Flight 445 said he will not sue the company because of the vital services it provides to rural northwest Alaska, even as new details emerge about what may have caused the crash.

Jason Ryan and his wife, Liane Ryan, were married for nearly 30 years.

They met as kids, and for the second time, he said, at their childhood church in Wasilla after Ryan returned from serving in the U.S. Marine Corps.

“She’s the love of my life,” Ryan said.

Liane Ryan’s legacy continues through her children, her students and the young teachers she mentored throughout rural Alaska. She taught in the Mat-Su School District for 27 years as a sixth-grade science and math teacher before retiring.

After retiring, she took a position through the University of Alaska Fairbanks mentorship program as an early career teacher’s mentor, working with first and second-year teachers new to Alaska.

“She retired and was unemployed for about 24 hours when she took the job through UAF in the mentorship program,” Ryan said.

During her last visit to Unalakleet, Liane was doing STEM projects with kids. Her final Facebook post showed her making slime with students.

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NTSB: Bering Air flew overloaded planes prior to crash near Nome that killed 10

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New reports show that Bering Air exceeded weight limits on flights prior to the crash of an overloaded plane near Nome last February that killed the pilot and all nine passengers.

That finding is part of a massive docket of investigative documents the National Transportation Safety Board made public Wednesday. The docket includes 78 documents totaling more than 3,400 pages.

The single-engine Bering Air Cessna Caravan crashed on Norton Sound sea ice about 30 miles southeast of Nome after leaving Unalakleet amid spells of freezing rain. Flight 445 carried several locals, Anchorage-area engineers working on a water plant, and a Mat-Su educator.

The NTSB is investigating what caused the Feb. 6, 2025, crash, the third fatal civilian aviation incident in the U.S. in less than a week and one of Alaska’s deadliest in decades.

A preliminary NTSB report released last year found the Caravan’s weight on takeoff was more than 1,000 pounds too heavy for the icy conditions it was flying into. The Federal Aviation Administration requires operators to follow such weight limitations.

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