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Atlas / NTSB / CHI91IA041

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event CHI91IA041

1990-12-05 DETROIT, Michigan, United States Airport · DTW None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N715RC

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

CESSNA 182T

Year of manufacture

2002

Engine

LYCOMING IO-540 SER (300 hp)

Seats / Engines

4 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

20020221

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A9901A

Registrant of record

EIDE DAVID B

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

THE INADEQUATE DEICING PROCEDURES INSTITUTED BY COMPANY MANAGEMENT.

Factual narrative

THE INCIDENT AIRPLANE EXPERIENCED AN APU FIRE SHORTLY AFTER LANDING WHEN THE APU WAS STARTED. THE AIRPLANE HAD BEEN DEICED AT ITS POINT OF DEPARTURE WITH A GLYCOL AND WATER MIX. COMPANY POLICY CALLED FOR THE FLIGHT CREW TO SHUT OFF THE APU DURING DEICING. THE APU EXHAUST OUTLET IS ON TOP OF THE RIGHT WING NEAR THE FUSELAGE, AND WILL ACCEPT DEICE FLUID INTO THE EXHAUST AND SUBSEQUENTLY THE APU COMBUSTION CHAMBER IF DEICING FLUID IS DIRECTED INTO THE OPENING. GLYCOL IS HIGHLY FLAMMABLE ONCE THE WATER IS VAPORIZED/EVAPORATED. THE APU START FOLLOWING THE LANDING AT DETROIT IGNITED THE RESIDUAL GLYCOL IN THE APU, CAUSING THE EXHAUST STACK FIRE. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1990_CHI91IA041.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Related research

What the literature says.

Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (icing). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.

Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗