PA-30 flight crew reported difficulties maintaining airspeed and altitude in icing conditions. The flight crew requested vectors to land at destination airport.

ACN 1963927 2023-01 PA-30 Twin Comanche Commuter and GA Icing Incidents

DescentPart 91

What is ASRS?

The Aviation Safety Reporting System is NASA's voluntary, confidential, non- punitive incident-reporting system, established 1976. Pilots, controllers, dispatchers, and maintenance technicians file reports describing safety- relevant events. NASA de-identifies every report before adding it to the public database. Reports are not investigated by NASA, the FAA, or the NTSB — they represent the reporter's perspective.

Pilot narratives

Verbatim from the de-identified NASA record. First-person account by the reporter. NASA strips identifying details (names, company, specific time); anonymization placeholders are ZZZ, X, Y.

Reporter 1

Flying IFR at passing 7,000 feet during descent we encountered icing conditions. As we were leveling off at 5,000 feet our airspeed started dropping quickly. We were attempting to maintain our airspeed and request a lower altitude from Approach Control but the frequency was busy. At that point our airspeed indication went out and was unavailable. We may have deviated off our altitude before we got a clearance to descend and maintain 3,000 feet from ZZZ Approach. It was a busy time in night IMC conditions. We were subsequently handed off to ZZZ1 Approach and cleared to 2,600 feet and then 2,400 feet on our approach to the ZZZ Airport.

Reporter 2

Flying IFR at night passing 7,000 feet during descent we encountered icing conditions. As we were leveling off at 5,000 feet our airspeed started dropping quickly. We were attempting to maintain our airspeed and request a lower altitude from approach control but the frequency was busy. At that point our airspeed indication went out and was unavailable. We may have deviated from our altitude before we got a clearance to descend and maintain 3,000 feet from ZZZ Approach, it was a busy time in night IMC conditions. We were subsequently handed off to ZZZ1 Approach and cleared to 2,600 feet and then 2,400 feet on our approach to the ZZZ Airport.

NASA classification — Anomalies

Aircraft Equipment Problem
Deviation - Altitude
Deviation - Speed
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural
Inflight Event / Encounter

NASA classification — Assessments

Contributing Factors / Situations: Aircraft
Primary Problem: Aircraft

ASRS reports are voluntarily submitted, de-identified by NASA, and represent the reporter's perspective. The presence of reports on a topic cannot be used to infer prevalence in the National Airspace System. The authoritative source is the NASA ASRS Database Online at asrs.arc.nasa.gov ↗.