Ab Flight Services Piper PA-23-250 accident
Piper PA-23-250 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Hector International Airport (FAR) to Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport / Wold–Chamberlain Field (MSP)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI95LA086
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Charter & commuter
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-23-250
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-23
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N62711
- Operator
- Ab Flight Services
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hector International Airport (FAR), Fargo, NDTo Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport / Wold–Chamberlain Field (MSP), MN
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- En route · cruise
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- In flight encounter with weather
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Airframe › Ice
- Anti-ice/deice system, windshield › Inadequate
- Pilot in command › Proper descent rate, not possible
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE 14 CFR PART 135 FLIGHT ENCOUNTERED UNFORECAST ICING AS IT APPROACHED ITS ORIGINAL DESTINATION. THE PILOT STATED THE AIRPLANE'S WINDSHIELD DEICING PLATE WAS NOT ABLE TO CLEAR THE ICE FROM ITS SURFACE. HE SAID HIS ENTIRE WINDSHIELD WAS ICE COVERED. THE PILOT SAID HE DECIDED TO FLY TO HIS ALTERNATE AIRPORT BECAUSE IT HAS BETTER INSTRUMENT APPROACH FACILITIES. DURING HIS SECOND INSTRUMENT APPROACH, THE PILOT WAS GUIDED TO A LANDING BY FAA AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL PERSONNEL LOCATED NEXT TO THE RUNWAY. THE PILOT SAID THE AIRPLANE FIRMLY CONTACTED THE RUNWAY AT TOUCHDOWN. DURING THE LANDING ROLL THE LEFT MAIN GEAR COLLAPSED AND THE AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH TAXIWAY SIGNS AND RUNWAY EDGE LIGHTS. THE ON-SCENE INVESTIGATION REVEALED ABOUT 1 1/2 INCHES OF ICE ON THE WINDSHIELD. SHORTLY AFTER THE AIRPLANE CAME TO A STOP, THE WINDSHIELD DEICING PLATE AREA WAS CLEAR. THE UNBOOTED AREAS OF THE AIRPLANE'S WINGS HAD 2 TO 2 1/2 INCHES OF ICE ON THEM.
Probable cause
an inadequate windshield deicing system for the inflight icing encountered, airframe icing, and the pilot's inability to maintain a proper descent rate. Factors associated with this accident were an inadequate weather forecast and icing conditions.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI95LA086
- Event ID
- 20001207X02938
- Case number
- CHI95LA086
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1995-02-16.
- API snapshot SHA-256: dbbda8904682e2b679f2b01e68269facb3f07d880d56e7e5b28a2d999307268d; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:03:32.218Z.