NTSB Says Conditions Conducive To 'Serious Icing'

An NTSB preliminary report on an October 3 Piper PA-24-180 Comanche crash in Hammonton, NJ indicates conditions conducive for "serious icing at glide power" were present at the time the aircraft's engine failed.

About 12:30 in the afternoon, 73-year-old Frank Greiner of Little Egg Harbor Township was on base approaching runway 21 at Hammonton Municipal Airport when he turned on the auxiliary fuel pump -- that's when he says the engine quit.

Greiner crash landed in a swampy forest about five miles north of the airport. The aircraft was substantially damaged, but Greiner walked away with only minor injuries. A failed attempt by a local resident and two police officers to retrieve Greiner from the swamp ended when a Coast Guard crew winched the three would-be rescuers, as well as Greiner, aboard a helicopter.

Greiner's Comanche was an early model manufactured in the late 1950s. If unmodified, the aircraft would have incorporated a carburetor with a method of providing heated air to help prevent the formation of carburetor icing. The report doesn't indicate whether the plane was so equipped.

The reports notes weather reported at a nearby airport within a half-hour of the crash indicated winds from 210 degrees true at 9 knots, temperature 81 degrees Fahrenheit, and dew point 54 degrees Fahrenheit.

The NTSB says it reviewed a carburetor icing probability chart and found the temperature-dew point readings indicated the probability of "serious icing at glide power."

FMI: www.ntsb.gov