CEN11CA128 · Cessna 340A
Wisconsin Aviation Cessna 340A · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Dane County Regional Truax Field (MSN) to Dane County Regional Truax Field (MSN)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN11CA128
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Cessna 340A
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 340
- 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
- N233DS
- Operator
- Wisconsin Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Dane County Regional Truax Field (MSN), Madison, WITo Dane County Regional Truax Field (MSN), Madison, 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
- Approach · IFR final approach
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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 oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to the pilot, he attempted two landings at the original destination airport; however, due to the weather, the pilot elected to return to the departure airport. While on the instrument approach to the runway, the windshield became covered with ice and the de-ice system could not de-ice the windshield. The pilot then attempted the landing by looking out the left window. At 15 feet above the runway, the pilot noticed the airspeed was approximately 85 knots and the airplane stalled. The pilot added engine power; however, the airplane experienced a hard landing on the runway. Examination of the airplane revealed the forward fuselage was buckled and the de-ice fluid tank was empty. No mechanical anomalies were noted with the airplane. The pilot stated that he did not check the fluid level in the de-ice tank during the preflight inspection.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain adequate airspeed during the approach, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall. Contributing to the accident was the pilot's failure to check the de-ice fluid level prior to takeoff, which resulted in the failure of the de-ice system to clear the windshield of ice.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN11CA128
- Event ID
- 20101227X00333
- Case number
- CEN11CA128
- 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: f4800575186ca9b7ad7e6c238f5dcadb40a588b035113aad2ce4e55524243e8d; retrieved 2026-09-15T15:38:45.499Z.