| Crash location | 40.403333°N, 86.939166°W
Reported location is a long distance from the NTSB's reported nearest city. This often means that the location has a typo, or is incorrect. |
| Nearest city | Lafayette, IN
39.291433°N, 86.885286°W 76.9 miles away |
| Tail number | N6509T |
|---|---|
| Accident date | 17 Jan 2009 |
| Aircraft type | Beech 19 |
| Additional details: | None |
Prior to the night flight, the pilot obtained a "full, low-level weather briefing" and filed an instrument rules flight plan. Shortly after departure, the pilot encountered icing conditions and began to experience a severe vibration in the aircraft flight controls at 5,000 feet mean sea level (msl). The pilot elected to return to the departure airport. During the instrument approach to land, the airplane continued to accumulate ice on the airframe, and continued toward the terrain in a 1,500 feet per minute descent. At 1,750 feet msl, the airplane "broke out of the clouds with the windscreen completely covered with ice." Subsequently, the airplane impacted the terrain approximately 40 feet short of the runway and skidded to a stop on the runway. Examination of the airplane's systems and powerplant revealed no anomalies that would have precluded normal operation. The airplane's wings and windscreen had approximately 1 inch of ice on the respective surfaces. The pilot reported that icing conditions were not forecast or reported prior to his flight.
The pilot's inadvertent encounter with icing conditions during initial climb. Contributing to the accident were the lack of visibility during the landing due to an ice covered windscreen, and the structural ice that adversely affected the flight characteristics of the airplane.