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MKC85FA066 · Piper PA-23

3 Mar 1985 · Cedar Rapids, IA, United States

Piper PA-23 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route

From Osage Municipal Airport (D02) to Iowa City Municipal Airport (IOW)

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Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's registration. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.

Event

NTSB case
MKC85FA066
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
3 · 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
Visual Meteorological Cond

Piper PA-23

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
N1241P Possible conflict
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Osage Municipal Airport (D02), Osage, IATo Iowa City Municipal Airport (IOW), Iowa City, IA
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
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
Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
Stall/spin
DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
Destroyed

Cause areas

  • Pilot in command › Airspeed(vmc), not maintained
  • Pilot in command › Lack of recent instrument time
  • Pilot in command › Lack of recent total experience
  • Pilot in command › Operation with known deficiencies in equipment, improper
  • Pilot in command › Preflight briefing service, disregarded
  • Pilot in command › Stall/spin, inadvertent

Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Cedar Rapids, IA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.

NTSB narrative

PLT REPORTED NO FORWARD VIS DUE TO ICE ON WINDSHIELD. N1291P THEN DIVERTED TO CID WHICH HAS RAPCON. THE TEMP AT THE SURFACE WAS 32 DEGS F BUT WAS REPORTED TO BE HIGHER AT 4,000 FT MSL. THE FLT CLIMBED TO 4,000 FT AND BEGAN LOSING THE ICE BUT THEN REPORTED GETTING IN WORSE TROUBLE. CID VECTORED THE ACFT TOWARD THE CID ARPT AND WHILE DESCENDING N1291P REPORTED THAT AN ENG HAD QUIT. N1291P SAID THE ACFT COULD NOT MAINTAIN ALTITUDE AND THEN REPORTED GOING DOWN. AIRCRAFT ENTERED A SPIN AND CRASHED IN AN OPEN FARM FIELD. THIS ACFT WAS NOT EQUIPPED FOR FLT IN ICING CONDITIONS. EVEN THOUGH THE CARBURETOR HEAT CONTROL WAS FOUND IN THE FULL ON POSITION, THE PITOT HEAT CONTROL WAS FOUND IN THE OFF POSITION. NO PROP,WINDSHIELD,OR AIRFRAME DEICING EQUIPMENT WAS INSTALLED BUT A WINDSHIELD ELECTRICAL ANTI-ICE WAS INSTALLED & ON. THE PLTS WX BRIEFING WAS(LIMITED BY THE PLT) A PARTIAL ONE BUT INCLUDED THE FLT PRECAUTIONS FOR ICING CONDITIONS,IFR & TURBULENCE. THE ACFT MODIFICATION TO PERMIT USE OF AUTO GAS INCREASED CARB ICING POTENTIAL(FAA AC 91-33A).

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record MKC85FA066
Event ID
20001214X36006
Case number
MKC85FA066
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: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
  • The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
  • API snapshot SHA-256: 6ea41a82d020d1ded739f3fbc153d258c3a069bb38a6000d98cbb2c1d7055819; retrieved 2026-09-21T05:07:29.169Z.