SEA08FA006 · Cessna 310N
Cessna 310N · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport (BZN) to C85 · Baraboo, WI
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA08FA006
- 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
- 2 · 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
- 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
Cessna 310N
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 310
- 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
- N85WT
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport (BZN), Bozeman, MTTo C85 · Baraboo, WI
- 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/mush
- 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 › Airspeed, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Flight into adverse weather, continued
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Stall/mush, encountered
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The instrument-rated private pilot was on a cross-country flight in instrument meteorological conditions. About 40 minutes after departure the pilot reported to air traffic control (ATC) that he was encountering icing conditions at his cruise altitude of 13,000 feet and requested a lower altitude. The pilot was cleared to descend to 11,000 feet. The pilot continued to encounter icing conditions and was cleared to descend to lower altitudes. About 15 minutes after the pilot's initial report of icing conditions, he transmitted "headed towards the runway" followed by "...going down...troubles with engine." No additional communication from the accident pilot was received. The wreckage was located later that day in an open field about 2 miles west of a private airstrip. Post accident examination of the airframe and engine revealed no evidence of mechanical malfunction or anomaly. Ground scars and wreckage signatures were consistent with a stall/mush into the terrain. Weather forecasts and pilot reports for the pilot's intended route of flight indicated icing and widespread instrument meteorological conditions. The pilot received a weather briefing prior to the flight; however, it was limited by his request to wind, temperature aloft forecasts and METAR observations for his route of flight. FAA Advisory Circular 91-51A states, in part, "The most hazardous aspect of structural icing is its aerodynamic effects. Ice can alter the shape of an airfoil. This can cause control problems, change the angle of attack at which the aircraft stalls, and cause the aircraft to stall at a significantly higher airspeed..." The AC additionally states "Flight into known or potential icing situations without thorough knowledge of icing and its effects and appropriate training and experience in use of deice and anti-ice systems should be avoided." According to the manufacturer, the airplane was not certified or equipped for flight into known icing conditions. It is probable that the airplane was unable to maintain an adequate airspeed during the descent for landing and stalled short of the runway.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper in-flight planning/decision, his continued flight into adverse weather (icing conditions), and failure to maintain an adequate airspeed during the emergency descent for landing. Contributing to the accident were the forecast icing conditions.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA08FA006
- Event ID
- 20071022X01626
- Case number
- SEA08FA006
- 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, coordinates. 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: 9a20893b61770371c305b61651a813c5eb15ffed7349f39b241e90b4b9498693; retrieved 2026-09-20T16:12:56.052Z.