Beech A36 N29AC accident near Andrews, Texas

Probable cause

The pilot's failure to note that icing conditions existed in the airport area despite having received that information in a preflight briefing, which resulted in his flight into an area of icing and the subsequent loss of airplane control due to ice accumulation on the airplane.

NTSB analysis

The commercial pilot was conducting a personal cross-country flight. Before departure, the pilot received a weather briefing, which called for icing conditions below 12,000 ft for an area that encompassed the destination airport. The pilot reported that he contacted the air route traffic controller to request an area navigation global positioning system (RNAV GPS) approach. Before initiating the approach, the pilot listened to the destination airport's current automated weather observation. After the controller cleared the approach, the airplane descended through a 200- to 300-ft-thick cloud layer and then broke out of the clouds about 700 to 800 ft above ground level with the runway in sight. The airplane was descending a little more quickly than desired, so the pilot added full power, and, even though the engine sounded fine, the descent rate continued. The airplane contacted the ground about 3,000 ft short of the runway, less than 1 minute from the time it descended out of the clouds. An on-scene examination of the airplane revealed 1/4- to 1/2-inch-thick ice on the leading edge of the wings, vertical stabilizer, horizontal stabilizer, windscreen, and several antennas on the fuselage.

The air traffic controller did not verify, as required, that the pilot had the current local weather information so verification by the controller likely would not have affected the pilot's decision to land at the destination airport. Further, although the controller did not solicit nor distribute a pilot report to the accident pilot or the pilot in the airplane that landed just before the accident airplane, the pilot had received information in his weather briefing indicating that icing was possible in the area.

Text from the NTSB. Open the NTSB docket for CEN15LA137 for the full record.