A small plane that crashed in Wisconsin, killing all six people aboard, including a child, descended as quickly as 4,000 feet per minute after the pilot reported ice forming on the wings, according to newly released flight data and federal investigators.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said the pilot of the Piper PA-46 Malibu was flying at 24,000 feet Tuesday night when he told air traffic controllers that ice was accumulating on the aircraft’s wings and asked to descend.
Controllers approved the request. The aircraft then entered a descending right turn that grew progressively steeper before radio communications and flight-tracking data were lost, investigators said.
First responders are seen at the scene of a small plane crash in the Town of Dellona in Sauk County, Wisconsin, on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (FOX6 Milwaukee WITI)
FlightRadar24 data indicated that the plane’s airspeed nearly doubled during the descent, reaching 340 mph as it dropped at a rate of up to 4,000 feet per minute, The Associated Press reported.
“It has all the earmarks of an icing-related loss of control,” aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti, a former NTSB and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) investigator, told the AP.
Ice buildup can pose a severe danger to aircraft. Even a thin coating can disrupt airflow across the wings, reduce lift and make the plane harder to control.
The six-seat, single-engine aircraft was flying from Kenosha to Menomonie when it went down shortly before 10 p.m. in a wooded part of Sauk County near Mirror Lake State Park, authorities said. The crash site was about 10 miles west of Wisconsin Dells.
A map shows Dellona, Wisconsin, where six perished in a plane crash on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (Fox News)
Rain was falling in the area as a thunderstorm passed through Dellona when the crash occurred.
All six people on board died. Authorities said the crash damaged no structures and caused no injuries on the ground. The victims’ identities had not been released publicly.
The Piper Malibu aircraft model has previously drawn federal attention because of crashes linked to icing conditions.
Investigators are examining the aircraft’s final communications with an air traffic control tower before the crash, authorities said. (FOX6 Milwaukee WITI)
The NTSB conducted a special safety review of seven icing-related crashes involving Piper Malibu and Mirage aircraft from 1989 to 1991. Several of those accidents involved relatively inexperienced pilots who were unfamiliar with operating the sophisticated planes in icy conditions.
The review led to recommendations involving pilot training, aircraft checklists and operating manuals. It also called for an indicator light for systems intended to prevent ice from accumulating in pitot tubes, which help deliver accurate airspeed readings.
The NTSB is leading the investigation into Tuesday’s Wisconsin plane crash. Investigators have not yet identified an official cause.
