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CEN11CA199

2011-02-21 · Romeoville, Illinois, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport LOT

N119RS has since been reassigned. It is now registered to a different aircraft (RANS RANS S-19, built 2022), which was not involved in this event.

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot's failure to maintain adequate airspeed during the approach/landing to compensate for the ice accumulated on the airframe which resulted in a hard landing.

Factual narrative

The pilot reported she checked the weather prior to departing on the cross country flight and it appeared that an area of icing had cleared out of the area near the destination airport. While descending through 4,000 feet near the destination, the airplane began to pick up ice quickly. The pilot advised air traffic control and cycled the deice boots several times. The pilot reported she was unable to determine how much ice was accumulating on the airplane and she made the landing approach using "normal" approach speeds. The airplane touched down hard during the landing resulting in substantial damage to the internal structure of the left wing. The pilot reported that after the landing ice was visible along the leading edge of the wings. She stated she should have maintained a higher airspeed during the approach and landing. The pilot reported that she checked the weather prior to departing on the cross country flight and it appeared that an area of icing had cleared out of the area near the destination airport. While descending through 4,000 feet near the destination, the airplane began to pick up ice quickly. She advised the air traffic controller and cycled the deice boots several times. She reported that she was unable to determine how much ice was accumulating on the airplane and she made the landing approach using normal approach speeds. The airplane touched down hard resulting in substantial damage to the internal structure of the left wing. She reported that after the landing ice was visible along the leading edge of the wings. She stated that she should have maintained a higher airspeed during the approach and landing to prevent the accident. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12

NTSB Findings

FAA avdata. C = Cause, F = Factor.

  • — Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Temp/humidity/pressure-Conducive to structural icing-Effect on operation
  • C Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Airspeed-Incorrect use/operation - C

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2011_CEN11CA199.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

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Related research

Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (icing). All research papers