Federal investigators say newly released flight data points to ice buildup on the wings of a small plane as a likely factor in the crash that killed six people, including a child, in Sauk County this week.
The Piper PA-46 Malibu was flying from Kenosha to Menomonie on Tuesday night when it went down shortly before 10 p.m. in a wooded area near Mirror Lake State Park, about 10 miles west of Wisconsin Dells, according to authorities.
The National Transportation Safety Board said the pilot had been cruising at 24,000 feet when he radioed air traffic control to report ice accumulating on the aircraft’s wings and asked to descend. Controllers approved the request. The plane then entered a descending right turn that grew sharper before radio contact and flight-tracking data were lost.
Data from FlightRadar24, cited by The Associated Press, showed the plane’s airspeed nearly doubled to 340 mph as it dropped at a rate of up to 4,000 feet per minute.
“It has all the earmarks of an icing-related loss of control,” Jeff Guzzetti, an aviation safety expert and former investigator for both the NTSB and the Federal Aviation Administration, told the AP.
Ice on an aircraft’s wings, even a thin layer, can disrupt airflow, cut lift and make a plane far harder to control.
A thunderstorm was moving through the Dellona area at the time of the crash, and rain was falling.
All six people aboard the six-seat, single-engine plane were killed. Authorities said the crash damaged no structures and injured no one on the ground. The victims’ identities had not been released.
A Model With a Troubled Icing History
The Piper Malibu has faced federal scrutiny before over crashes tied to icing conditions. The NTSB conducted a special safety review of seven icing-related crashes involving Piper Malibu and Mirage aircraft between 1989 and 1991, several of which involved pilots with relatively little experience handling the sophisticated planes in icy weather.
That review led to recommendations for changes to pilot training, aircraft checklists and operating manuals, along with an indicator light for systems meant to prevent ice from forming in pitot tubes, which feed airspeed data to the cockpit.
The NTSB is leading the investigation into Tuesday’s crash. Investigators have not yet determined an official cause.
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