A Piper PA-46 Malibu crashed in Sauk County, Wisconsin, shortly before 10 p.m. Tuesday, killing all six people aboard, including a child, according to authorities and federal investigators. The aircraft came down in a wooded area near Mirror Lake State Park, about 10 miles west of Wisconsin Dells. No one on the ground was reported injured, and authorities said no structures were damaged. The victims’ identities had not been publicly released in the supplied report.
The National Transportation Safety Board said the pilot was at 24,000 feet when he told air traffic control that ice was accumulating on the wings and asked to descend. Controllers approved the request. The plane then began descending in a right turn that grew sharper, investigators said. Communications and flight-tracking information were subsequently lost.
Flight data cited by The Associated Press indicated the aircraft descended at as much as 4,000 feet per minute. Its airspeed nearly doubled during the descent, reaching 340 mph, according to FlightRadar24 data reported by the AP. The plane had been traveling from Kenosha to Menomonie.
Aviation safety specialist Jeff Guzzetti, a former investigator with the NTSB and Federal Aviation Administration, told the AP that the flight pattern showed signs consistent with a possible icing-related loss of control. That assessment is not an official finding. The NTSB is investigating, and investigators have not established the cause of the crash.
Ice can interfere with airflow over an aircraft’s wings, reducing lift and making the aircraft harder to control, the source report explains. Rain was falling as a thunderstorm moved through Dellona around the time of the crash. The available information does not establish how weather conditions or ice affected the plane or its handling.
The aircraft model has been examined in earlier federal safety work involving icing. The NTSB reviewed seven icing-related crashes involving Piper Malibu and Mirage aircraft from 1989 through 1991. The review led to recommendations addressing pilot training, checklists and operating manuals, as well as an indicator light for systems intended to prevent ice buildup in pitot tubes. Those tubes help provide airspeed readings.
The earlier review offers historical context, but it does not determine what happened in this crash. Investigators have not announced a final account, and the report does not identify the occupants or provide further details about the aircraft’s condition. The NTSB’s investigation remains ongoing.
