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DCA91MA019

1991-01-31 · BECKLEY, West Virginia, United States · Serious · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport BKW

N167PC has since been reassigned. It is now registered to a different aircraft (AMERICAN CHAMPION AIRCRAFT 7GCBC, built 2003), which was not involved in this event.

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

FLIGHT INTO KNOWN ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS BY THE PILOT, WHICH RESULTED IN ICE ACCUMULATION ON THE AIRCRAFT AND SUBSEQUENT LOSS OF AIRCRAFT CONTROL (TAIL PLANE STALL) AS THE FLAPS WERE FULLY EXTENDED. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE PILOT'S INADEQUATE USE OF THE PREFLIGHT BRIEFING SERVICE, INADEQUATE TRAINING PROVIDED TO THE PILOTS BY COMPANY/MANAGEMENT PERSONNEL, INADEQUATE SURVEILLANCE BY THE FAA, AND ICING CONDITIONS.

Factual narrative

ACFT WAS DISPATCHED WITH INOP AIRFRAME DEICE SYS, THO AN OPNL DEICE SYS WAS RQRD FOR FLT IN KNOWN ICG CONDS. DRG DSCNT TO LND, ACFT ENCTRD LGT ICG CONDS. CAPT BELIEVED ACFT COULD 'HANDLE IT' & CONTD DSCNT. AS HE BGN ILS FINAL APCH, HE NOTED SGFNT INCR OF ICE ACCUMULATION & USED HIGHER THAN NML APCH SPD. AS FULL (50 DEG) FLAPS WERE SET, ACFT BGN BUFFET & PITCHED NOSE DWN. CAPT CORRECTED WITH FULL BACK PRES ON CTL COLUMN, BUT ACFT LNDD HARD, GEAR COLLAPSED & ACFT SLID ABT 3600' TO A STOP. NO PREIMPACT MECH ANOMALY WAS FND, EXCEPT FOR INOP DEICE SYS. INV REVEALED PLTS HAD RCVD PRINTOUT OF WX FM CO COMPUTER SYS WITH SFC OBS & TRML FCST, BUT NO AREA FCST (FA). PLTS & GND PSNL WERE NOT AWARE THAT FA WAS AVAIL AT CO WX TRML. FA FCSTD LGT & OCNL MOD RIME & MXD ICG IN CLDS & PRECIP ABV FRZG LVL. WX DTRTD, BUT PLTS DID NOT REQ INFLT WX INFO OR PIREPS. FLT MNL NOTED TAILPLANE ICE MAY CAUSE NOSE DWN TRIM CHG WITH FLAP EXTN. THERE WAS EVIDENCE OF TAIL PLANE STALL, LACK OF CO TRNG IN COLD WX OPNS, DEFICIENCIES IN USE OF DEICING SYS, & LACK OF FAA SURVEILLANCE. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1991_DCA91MA019.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

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Related research

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