Georgian Express Flight 126
Cessna 208B Grand Caravan · Crashed shortly after takeoff due to icing and overloading
From Pelee Island Airport (CYPT) to Windsor International Airport (YQG)
Event
- 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
- Event fatalities
- 10 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 10
- Survivors
- 0
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 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
- Airline
Cessna 208B Grand Caravan
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 208
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- 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
- C-FAGA
- Operator
- Georgian Express
- Onboard fatalities
- 10
- Route
- From Pelee Island Airport (CYPT)To Windsor International Airport (YQG)
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Not plotted · Not plotted: the Wikipedia article gives no coordinates, and its site names no town or airport that matches exactly.
From the Wikipedia article
Georgian Express Flight 126 was a scheduled domestic flight from Pelee Island to Windsor, Ontario. On January 17, 2004 the Cessna 208B Grand Caravan crashed after takeoff due to icing and overloading, killing all ten people on board.
Flight timeline
At 15:23 the aircraft was refueled at Windsor Airport, and at 15:55 it was de-iced, taking off ten minutes later for Pelee. Twenty-five minutes later it landed at Pelee Island Airport. Before taking off from Pelee for the return trip, two people on the ramp expressed their concern about ice on the wings to the pilot. The pilot was then observed inspecting the wings, but expressed no concern and continued boarding the passengers and loading the cargo. At approximately 16:38, the aircraft took off as GGN126 for Windsor. After having taken off using most of the runway, the Cessna climbed into the air at a very shallow angle. As the pilot raised the flaps over Lake Erie while attempting to land, a stall occurred. Because the aircraft was entering a right turn at this point, the stall first occurred on the left wing. The nose dipped, and the Cessna rolled to the left and eventually impacted the ice, killing all ten occupants.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
The investigation by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada found that the aircraft was operable, but about 15 percent overweight at the time of departure. The Board determined that standard passenger weight values were to be updated and that commercial and air taxi aircraft with nine or fewer passengers should use real passenger weights instead of standard ones so as not to underestimate their weight. Additionally, an Ontario jury found the pilot at fault for the crash and awarded the family of a victim $345,000.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Georgian Express Flight 126” (revision 1364273942, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: Georgian Express Flight 126
- Article
- Georgian Express Flight 126
- Revision
- 1364273942 · 2026-07-15 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q93990354
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "Georgian Express Flight 126" (page 80138688, revision 1364273942)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- none
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- flight number in the article title
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.