Skip to content

DEN90FA076

1990-03-22 · CAPUTA, South Dakota, United States · Fatal · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport RAP

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

IMPROPER PLANNING/DECISION BY THE PILOT, ACCUMULATION OF STRUCTURAL ICE AND THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN CONTROL OF THE AIRCRAFT. THE ADVERRSE WEATHER WAS A RELATED FACTOR.

Factual narrative

THE PILOT WAS FLYING THREE PASSENGERS TO RAPID CITY FOR A SCHOLARSHIP INTERVIEW. HE RECEIVED A WEATHER BRIEFING PRIOR TO DEPARTURE & AGAIN EN ROUTE, BOTH TIMES RECEIVING INFORMATION ABOUT LIGHT TO MODERATE ICING CONDITIONS AT HIS DESTINATION. THE PLT REPORTED HE WAS IN ICING CONDITIONS AS HE TURNED TO INTERCEPT THE ILS LOCALIZER. HE THEN RADIOED THAT THE ACFT WAS IN A 'A SPIN AND A DIVE.' AN ON-SCENE EXAM REVEALED NUMEROUS LARGE PIECES OF CONTOURED ICE THAT MATCHED THE ROUNDED PORTION OF THE WING LEADING EDGE. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1990_DEN90FA076.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Search this event elsewhere

External sources are reported, not agency: signal that something happened, not fact about what happened.

Related research

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