CEN09LA122 · Beech A36TC
J & F Wings Over Texas Beech A36TC · Accident: structural icing en route
From Springfield Branson National Airport (SGF) to Three Rivers Municipal Dr Haines Airport (HAI)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's location. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN09LA122
- 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
- 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
Beech A36TC
- 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
- N92WT
- Operator
- J & F Wings Over Texas
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Springfield Branson National Airport (SGF), Springfield, MOTo Three Rivers Municipal Dr Haines Airport (HAI), Three Rivers, MI
- 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 · descent
- Defining eventThe 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
- Structural icing
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft power plant
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot, who was on a cross-country flight, departed after a planned stop to refuel the airplane and receive a flight service station weather briefing. The pilot stated that he did not recall any reports of icing during the briefing. The pilot reported picking up light rime ice while descending from 9,000 feet for a global-positioning-system approach. The pilot reported that as he neared the airport he was able to maintain only 17 inches of manifold pressure. The pilot executed a forced landing on a frozen river about 1 mile south of the airport. The pilot reported the airplane normally stalls at 62 knots; however, it stalled at 82 knots during the landing. Inspection of the airplane revealed the entire span of both wings contained 1/16 to 1/8 inch of rime ice on the lower surface of the wings from the leading edge trailing aft about 12 inches. Ice was also visible on portions of the leading edge of both wings and the windscreen was iced over. The horizontal stabilizer was covered with about 3/16 inch of rime ice and the vertical stabilizer was covered with 1/8 to 3/16 inch of mixed ice. The alternate air door was in the closed position. The air inlet was crushed and packed with snow. All three propeller blades were twisted and bent rearward. The nose and left main gears collapsed and the right main gear was pushed up into the wing. The rear spars on both wings were bent and the flaps were buckled. The pilot received Direct User Access Terminal Service and flight service weather briefings that showed the existence and/or possibility of icing conditions near his destination.
Probable cause
The pilot's decision to continue the flight into an area with conditions that were conducive to icing and the loss of engine power due to induction icing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN09LA122
- Event ID
- 20090107X33011
- Case number
- CEN09LA122
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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: 01b92e86b16bdf0e443c2cc3cfa4bbb4971684e56a863aede29c01cccea83881; retrieved 2026-09-15T10:40:30.117Z.