UNCONTROLLED FLIGHT INTO TERRAIN: IN-FLIGHT ICING
Many fatal in-flight icing occurrences happen every year with needless loss of life and property.
Most often the information was readily available concerning the freezing levels, or the pilot never checked this important part of the trip planning. On occasion, in-flight icing is far more severe than was forecast and only recent PIREPS relayed in a timely manner could help prevent a tragedy.
Preflight planning and ADM is so important for aircraft with little or no de-ice or anti-ice capability. Inadvertent flight into severe known icing is almost always fatal and not survivable.
If you do encounter airframe ice, make your decision to climb or descend early, including declaring an emergency and making an immediate descent without ATC clearance if necessary. Often times the ice can accumulate very quickly so time becomes critical.
SOLUTION:
Better weather briefing efforts and better training concerning obtaining weather information for both before takeoff, and enroute becomes important.
Get with your CFI and plan a sample flight, and go fly where you are asked to obtain updated weather in flight from FSS or electronic data. Become proficient at obtaining better briefings and becoming better at making ADM type decisions for on the ground, and in flight. Always ask for a debrief on how you did, and any tricks that you could use to do better.
SAMPLE ACCIDENT REPORT:
The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident to be: The airplane's encounter with severe icing conditions, which resulted in structural icing, and the pilot's increased workload and subsequent disorientation while maneuvering in instrument flight rules (IFR) conditions with malfunctioning flight instruments, which led to the subsequent loss of airplane control. Contributing to the accident was the pilot's decision to takeoff in IFR conditions and fly a single-pilot operation without a functioning autopilot and with malfunctioning flight instruments. Accident Number: CEN14FA009.