The NTSB Preliminary Report is available.
The airport that they flew out of doesn't have much in the way of services. It had an automated (self-service) fueling station. Typically, those tend to have either a stepladder or a roll-around stepladder that is sized so that pilots of high-wing airplanes can haul up the refueling hose. I don't know how well one would do at removing ice and snow from a T-tail with those ladders. Nor do I know if there was any deicing equipment available.
I think that you can see where I'm going on this: It sounds like a fatal case of get-there-itis.
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2 comments:
3 hours removing snow and ice, eh? Fatally optimist of their work is what it sounds like. Just brushing the wings of an Archer of frost was damn near impossible at close to 32 degrees when I last tried it. Once I thought about it, the cold fuel in the tanks explained much of the issue. How in the hell they were ever expecting to clear a good sized turboprop, by hand, with only hand tools I have no idea. Sounds like nice work by ZMP to track the missing departure quickly and get the ALNOT out.
The prelininary report is out and I think it was in the air less than a minute. The PC-12 is a heck of an airplane but weather and poor decision making doomed that one.
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