AirNow Cessna 208B incident
Cessna 208B · Incident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Presque Isle International Airport (PQI) to Manchester-Boston Regional Airport (MHT)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC04IA023
- 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
- Incident
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Cessna 208B
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 208
- 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
- N805TH
- Operator
- AirNow
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Presque Isle International Airport (PQI), Presque Isle, METo Manchester-Boston Regional Airport (MHT), Manchester, NH
- 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
- Minor
Cause areas
- Weather condition › Icing conditions
- Window, flight compartment window/windshield › Ice
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Prior to departing on a night cargo flight, the pilot received a weather briefing that included forecast rain and snow, and occasional moderate rime and mixed icing in precipitation, and clouds, on his route of flight. While cruising in instrument meteorological conditions, the airplane encountered freezing rain. The pilot observed ice on the wing de-ice boots, and the windshield. He activated the airplane's anti-ice and de-ice equipment; however, the airplane continued to accumulate ice and the pilot diverted to another airport. The pilot reported that the airplane "felt sluggish" and that "ice had formed beyond the boots and onto the wing, but the de-ice boots were still active." He also reported that he conducted the approach with no forward visibility, and he looked out the side window to judge the distance above the runway. The pilot also stated that he did not use any flaps during the approach, and the airspeed was maintained at 110 knots. The pilot stated he did not have time to flare the airplane. The airplane landed hard, which resulted in damage to the landing gear and propeller. Examination of the airplane, which included the windshield de-ice system did not reveal any discrepancies. The airplane was equipped with a cargo pod and cargo pod boot. The pilot reported that the airplane's takeoff weight was 7,280 pounds. The airplane's maximum gross takeoff weight was 8,750 pounds.
Probable cause
The pilot's inability to see through the windshield, which was obscured due to icing conditions. This resulted in the pilot's inadequate flare, and a subsequent hard landing. A factor contributing to the accident was the wing icing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC04IA023
- Event ID
- 20050815X01241
- Case number
- NYC04IA023
- 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, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2003-11-05.
- API snapshot SHA-256: a5aa24332817a4758b28341d9c633fb80466e84e6822bdfb249f67a8dbd779a2; retrieved 2026-09-18T15:37:09.004Z.