flight safety detectives episode 265 - Inflight Icing Examined in Fatal TBM 700 Plane Crash

Inflight icing may have been a factor in the recent fatal crash of a TBM 700. Relying on publicly available ADS-B data and video from a nearby home, Todd Curtis, John Goglia, and Greg Feith discuss icing and other issues that may have affected the pilot and the aircraft.

The TBM 700, a single-engine turboprop aircraft, crashed outside of Minneapolis. The aircraft was expected to land at the Anoka County–Blaine Airport.

The pilot, the sole occupant of the aircraft, had departed from Naples, Florida, earlier that day and spent about 36 minutes on the ground at Des Moines, Iowa, before heading to the Minneapolis area. The length of the flight day may have affected the pilot as well as the quality of the information the pilot had about weather conditions.

The discussion analyzes the flight’s ADS-B data from the last leg of the flight, which shows that the aircraft was in a controlled descent heading for the intended runway. The aircraft entered a shallow left turn before departing from controlled flight and entering a high-angle descent before crashing into a nearby home.
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The high pilot workload during this phase of flight, the low visibility, and possible pilot fatigue or other physical conditions may have led to the pilot losing awareness of his air speed. Greg compares this event to the 1994 icing-related crash of an ATR 72 in Indiana and the SilkAir crash in Indonesia in 1997.

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