NASA · Aviation Safety Reporting System
Pilot reported a Pitot Probe Heat failure during descent in IMC, resulting in loss of air speed data and autopilot pitch down. Pilot regained aircraft control and continued to destination airport for landing.
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 narrative
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.
I experienced a Left Pitot heat failure. Relatively new plane for me and I believe I underestimated the situation I was in. I so no other issues at the time so I did not take any corrective action.....And at the time I'm not sure I knew any corrective actions to take. A short time later the Pitot froze up and my airspeed dropped to zero. This caused my autopilot to pitch me down. I disengaged the autopilot and notified ATC of my situation. I quickly found myself off course and altitude low while trying to manage the plane and my airspeed. I have never been in this situation, complete IMC with icing and no primary airspeed indicator. I do believe my steam guage was working but at the time I was focused on using ground speed off the GPS not thinking of the backup. I was getting multiple different CAS messages that I was unfamiliar with and then also lost Cabin pressure at about 14,000 ft. so my anxiety given my situation was elevated. ATC gave me some priority which was very nice of them. I don't believe I deviated a great deal off course but ATC was aware of my deviation and assisting me in getting back on track. I did my best to correct the plane back to proper altitude and course based on my GPS position. Eventually I broke free of the clouds during my descent and could immediately see ZZZ Runway and landed uneventfully. I have since talked with multiple pilots to discover corrective actions that I could have taken in this situation and overall it has been very educational.
NASA classification — Anomalies
- Aircraft Equipment Problem
- Deviation - Track / Heading
- Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural
- Inflight Event / Encounter
NASA classification — Assessments
- Contributing Factors / Situations
- Aircraft · Human Factors
- 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 ↗.