A small plane that crashed in Wisconsin, killing all six people aboard, including a child, descended at speeds of up to 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 notified air traffic control that ice was accumulating on the aircraft’s wings. He then requested permission to descend.
Controllers approved the descent, but the plane entered a right-hand turn that grew progressively steeper before radio contact 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 aircraft’s airspeed nearly doubled to 340 mph during the descent, while its rate of descent reached as much as 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 outlet.
Even a thin layer of ice can interfere with airflow across an aircraft’s wings. That reduces lift and can make the plane significantly harder to control.
The six-seat, single-engine aircraft was flying from Kenosha to Menomonie when it crashed shortly before 10 p.m. in a wooded area of Sauk County near Mirror Lake State Park, about 10 miles west of Wisconsin Dells, authorities said.
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 moved through Dellona around the time of the crash.
All six people on the plane died. Officials 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 scrutiny because of crashes involving icing conditions.
Investigators are probing the aircraft’s final communications with an air traffic control tower prior to 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 crashes involved relatively inexperienced pilots who were unfamiliar with operating the sophisticated aircraft 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 building up in pitot tubes, which help provide accurate airspeed readings.
The NTSB is leading the investigation into Tuesday’s crash. Officials have not yet established an official cause.