NTSB: Pilot Was Flying Too Low Before Hitting Smokestack in Idaho

The potato processing plant also had not correctly painted the hazards to increase their visibility, the aviation safety agency said.

Meg Godlewski

Friday, May 03, 2024 at 04:46 PM ET

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A security camera captured this image of the Cessna Caravan moments prior to the 2022 accident. [Courtesy: National Transportation Safety Board]

Key Takeaways:

A fatal April 2022 Cessna 208 crash at Burley Municipal Airport was caused by the pilot's failure to maintain altitude during an instrument approach, resulting in a collision with an exhaust stack.
The potato processing plant failed to implement FAA-recommended mitigation measures, such as painting the hazardous stacks, which had been advised since 2016.
Contributing factors included likely distraction or obscuration from steam emitted by the plant and the unusually steep 3.75-degree gradient of the RNAV 20 approach, which signaled an obstacle on the path.
An obstruction light from the tallest stack was allegedly stolen from the accident scene, complicating the determination of its operational status.

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Mitigation measures addressing the hazards of an exhaust stack on the roof of a potato processing plant were supposed to be in place in Idaho prior to a Cessna 208 Caravan flying into them, according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

The NTSB released its final report into the fatal April 2022 accident that occurred when the pilot was on approach to Burley Municipal Airport (KBYI). The aircraft collided with an exhaust stack that lies directly beneath the extended centerline of Runway 20. The accident happened shortly after 8:30 a.m. when it was snowing and IFR conditions prevailed.