The pilot reported that light rain and trace clear air icing were forecast along his intended route of flight, and he encountered those conditions during climb out from the airport in Springfield, Kentucky.
As the Piper PA-46 was climbing through 14,000 feet mean sea level (MSL) in instrument meteorological conditions, he noticed the airspeed had decreased 10 to 15 knots.
He checked the wings for ice and did not notice any accumulation, but activated the pitot heat at that time as a precaution.
After the pitot heat was activated, the Primary Flight Display (PFD) and Multi-Function Display (MFD) displayed a red X and went black. The autopilot then commanded the airplane to descend.
The pilot reported that he was unable to read his standby instruments due to the violent shaking of the airplane during the descent.
As the airplane emerged into VMC conditions, it was in an unusual attitude. He disconnected the autopilot and was able to recover the airplane to a level attitude. At this time, the PFD and MFD operation returned.
An air traffic controller reported to the pilot that he had lost about 5,000 feet in altitude and airspeed had increased over 200 knots. The pilot responded that his avionics were working again, and that the aircraft was operating normally.
He continued with the flight and landed without further incident. Substantial damage was discovered to both wings following the flight.
The airplane’s “Before Takeoff checklist” calls for the pitot heat to be activated for flight into icing conditions when visible moisture below +5° C, is anticipated or encountered.
An FAA inspector examined the airplane after the event and verified the pitot heat was operational.
The circumstances of the accident are consistent with the pilot failing to activate the pitot heat in a timely manner, which allowed ice to accumulate on the pitot static system. The PFD, MFD, and autopilot subsequently malfunctioned and the pilot lost control of the airplane.
Probable Cause: The pilot’s failure to activate the pitot heat in a timely manner during flight into icing conditions, which resulted in a temporary failure of the flight instruments and a subsequent loss of control.
To download the final report. Click here. This will trigger a PDF download to your device.
This March 2023 accident report is provided by the National Transportation Safety Board. Published as an educational tool, it is intended to help pilots learn from the misfortunes of others.
Here we go again—when technology fails, it would be appropriate for the pilot to know how to fly!
“it was in an unusual attitude” ? That’s probably my Dynon and a Level button.
My flying involves mostly on-demand cargo in cargo-only aircraft and wealthy owners of various other passenger aircraft. I do still carry a valid CFII – MEI but don’t advertise this fact; I ride as an instructor only with friends and acquaintances from time to time giving IPCs and flight reviews – I don’t teach beginner students; others do that. Generally speaking, I label all these friends and acquaintances, “Weekend Pilots”, solely because none of them fly professionally; they fly mostly on the weekends. Now, there seems to be one common disturbing trait among these guys that I have noticed over the years: As a group they almost never use pitot heat, and the majority are instrument rated. Why is this so?
Why isn’t pitot heat automatically activated using temp sensor control? Just asking…
Regards/J
It wasn’t an Airbus!!
Pitch and power is airspeed! So know your pitch settings! Should be between plus 10 and -2.5. If outside of this range your headed for big trouble.
Big news that no one talks about with glass instruments is the attitude instrument needs Pitot pressure or GPS signal to work. Without these your dead! Know your instruments because all the glass cockpits have this problem and everyone thinks they’re safe.
If you get instruction from me you will learn to fly without an airspeed indicator!
Pitch and power is airspeed.
Excellent. I think one of the worst scenarios is for a student pilot to lose the airspeed on the first solo. You can’t control what may accidentally fly into the pitot tube. I wouldn’t solo a student until he/she could fly safely in the pattern without airspeed. And it normally only took a couple of times to confirm that – as you say pitch and power levels should be familiar along with feel of the controls.
Really.? the loss of airspeed info caused both PFD and MFD to shut down ?
There is no info on the brand of the system. I’ll make sure that I never buy one.
Why can’t the autopilot just revert to ‘wings level’ ?
So, for now, I’ll stay with my ‘ steam gauges’. I can lose the airspeed and I can fly just fine with the rest. The tach gives me the airspeed info .
Ditto.
Yes – depending on the system, the glass systems get input from several sources and then the integrated computer can give the pilot additional information that would be time consuming to calculate, like a constant display of the winds aloft, ete, eta, etc. When an input becomes missing, this is an example of what can happen. However, every system I’ve seen has separate backup gauges which should allow the pilot to proceed as though he/she is using steam gauges. But as the pilot reported, he had difficulty using those backup instruments due to the turbulence or violent shaking as he said.