CHI00LA089 · Beech A36
Beech A36 · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Chicago Executive Airport (PWK) to Oakland County International Airport (PTK)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI00LA089
- 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
- General aviation
- 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
Beech A36
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 36
- 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
- N311JR
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Chicago Executive Airport (PWK), Wheeling, ILTo Oakland County International Airport (PTK)
- 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 91: General Aviation
- 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
- Approach
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not possible
- Pilot in command › Flight into known adverse weather, performed
- Pilot in command › Proper glidepath, not possible
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported there was no mention of icing during the weather briefing he received prior to the flight. He reported that during the approach, at an altitude of about 5,000 feet, the airplane 'rapidly' began to pick up ice. The pilot reported the ice buildup was sudden in onset and rapid, occurring over a few minutes. He reported that it became difficult to maintain airspeed and altitude, and he broke out of the clouds one to two miles from the airport at an altitude of 600 feet. The pilot reported that once he had '...the runway made' he lowered the landing gear at which time the airplane began 'to sink and lose altitude rapidly despite my use of full power and attempts to level off.' The airplane impacted the rough terrain approximately 1/4 mile short of the approach end of the runway. Inspection of the airplane revealed it was covered with about 2 inches of ice. A review of the Flight Service Station weather briefing that the pilot received revealed the briefer informed the pilot of a SIGMET for severe icing in Michigan with occasional severe rime mixed or clear icing in clouds and in precipitation below 8,000 feet. The briefer also informed the pilot of an AIRMET for the entire route of flight for occasional moderate rime or mixed icing in clouds and in precipitation below 10,000 feet.
Probable cause
the pilot's decision to fly into known adverse weather conditions which included icing and his inability to maintain aircraft control and a proper glidepath during the approach. Factors associated with the accident were the icing weather conditions and the rough terrain that the airplane encountered during the undershoot landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI00LA089
- Event ID
- 20001212X20593
- Case number
- CHI00LA089
- 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 2000-03-10.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 800bdd815dbfa12dcac1aabfd5c041967f56cfad55a5deba569ee1511030a1d1; retrieved 2026-09-22T13:04:19.622Z.