A Washington state jury has awarded USD16.9 million to the family of David Allan Oltman, a passenger who died in a crash onboard a Saab 2000 operated by now-defunct carrier PenAir (Anchorage Ted Stevens) on October 17, 2019.

The accident occurred at Dutch Harbor, when the turboprop overran the end of the runway. The crew reportedly miscalculated the impact that the 15-knot tailwind would have during landing, and the turboprop overran the runway and 300 foot (91.5 metre) runway safety area, crashing into harbour ballast rocks. In addition, the aircraft had a faulty anti-skid system.

One passenger was killed, one sustained serious injuries, and eight people minor injuries, according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). Onboard were three crew members and 39 passengers in total.

The Oltman family attorneys argued that the flight should have never departed because PenAir allegedly had numerous indications that the anti-skid system was not working correctly, including a fault code for the system occurring four days earlier.

At the time, PenAir was part of RavnAir Group, which filed for bankruptcy in April 2020. Later PenAir’s assets such as its Part 121 certificate, were sold to FLOAT Shuttle, alongside the certificate of Corvus Airlines and six of Corvus’ DHC-8-100 aircraft.

In 2020, PenAir had five Saab 2000s and one Saab 340B in its fleet, ch-aviation data shows.