When, in November of 2019, a Pilatus PC-12 crashed shortly after takeoff in Chamberlain, South Dakota, killing nine of the 12 aboard the plane, investigators immediately began looking into what effect the weather might have had on the short flight. Conditions were terrible, and the plane was observed and photographed with snow and ice still on its surfaces prior to takeoff. Removing snow and ice from an aircraft is a lot of frigid, unpleasant work. And that's for a small plane where all of the surfaces are within easy reach. When the tail of the aircraft is 14 feet off the ground, it can be impossible without the assistance of a ladder tall enough to get up to those critical surfaces in order to clear them. In this case, it didn't get done, at least not completely. When the NTSB investigates crashes of small, privately owned and flown aircraft, its specialists are often left to piece together the cause of the crash from the few details that they have been able to put together, like old-fashioned gumshoe detectives. In the case of this crash, that was not the case. There was an abundance of evidence. There were photos and videos of the aircraft before and during its departure, along with witness statements detailing the pilot's thought process. Even more, there was a flight recorder on the plane, a lightweight version manufactured by L3 Aviation Recorders that records both flight data and cockpit voice data. So, investigators were able to track the short flight second by second, along with insights about the pilot's thought process and state of mind. There were few unknowns.
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