Bemidji Airlines Flight 25

The airplane operating on a 14 CFR Part 135 cargo flight impacted the terrain during a circling approach at Sioux Falls after picking up ice which en route. During a weather briefing the pilot was informed that the weather at his destination airport was " two miles light freezing drizzle and fog eight hundred overcast for a ceiling ah their forecast til midnight is one mile variable four miles light freezing drizzle and fog five hundred overcast..." The briefer asked the pilot if he still wanted to go there and the pilot reported "Ya I guess they said I have to." The pilot reported that he began picking up ice approximately 50 miles from the destination and the accumulation increased as the flight progressed. The pilot informed ATC that he was picking up a lot of ice and ATC issued the VOR RWY 15 approach to the pilot. ATC asked the pilot if he wanted to fly the approach straight in or if he wanted to circle to land on runway 3. The pilot reported that he would circle. The pilot reported that while circling to land the airplane began to "shutter". He stated that the de-ice boots had become ineffective. The pilot reported he applied full power and the airplane continued to shutter at zero degrees bank. He continued to report, "It became apparent I could not make the runway at this point. I had to lower the nose to keep the aircraft from stalling. At approximately 50 feet I lowered the landing gear and crashed straight ahead into a highway dept. equipment storage yard." A post crash fire ensued. According to the pilot, he voiced his concerns regarding the weather for the flight to company dispatch personnel and requested to fly to an alternate airport; however, he was directed to fly to Sioux Falls.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset