How a Little Frost Seriously Impacted a Flight

Combination of factors—contamination, ground effect, and upward acceleration—all pushed toward a stall.

Peter Garrison

Friday, August 29, 2025 at 09:00 AM ET

Verified

Edited By:

Travis Tingle

An Embraer EMB-500 Phenom 100 taxis at London Southend Airport, which is covered in snow during blizzard. [Alamy]

Key Takeaways:

An Embraer Phenom 300 crashed during takeoff in snowy conditions, killing the pilot, which the NTSB primarily attributed to wing ice contamination, noting the pilot had inadvertently turned off the de-ice system.
The article highlights that ground effect can significantly lower a wing's stall angle of attack when close to the ground, a critical factor also observed in other fatal accidents.
The author concludes that the crash was likely caused by a dangerous combination of probable upper-surface ice contamination, ground effect, and the pilot's unusually steep rotation, rather than solely a de-icing failure.

See a mistake? Contact us.

On a January morning at Provo, Utah, an Embraer Phenom 300 was towed out of its heated hangar onto a ramp whitened by falling snow. It was fueled, and the pilot and three passengers boarded.

It taxied to the runway and, some 40 minutes after it had emerged from the hangar, the Phenom began its takeoff roll. It rotated, began to climb, then rolled to the left. The wing struck the runway, pulling the airplane sideways. The fuselage came to rest largely intact, only its left front portion crushed. There was no fire. All of the passengers survived the crash—only the pilot died.