AccuWeather similarities to State College, PA of PC-12
ICING will need to be a big part of the investigation based on the the AccuWeather conditions at the time of the accident. What could have been overweight aircraft that will need to be backed into and could be factor but if icing then this will be the boogy man of flying into known iceing conditions that the aircraft certification process has struggled to understand the variables of icing.
AccuWeather below more on their web site.
Monday's plane crash near Butte, Mont., shares similarities with a previous plane crash that occurred near State College, Pa., on March 27, 2005.
Both crashes involved a Pilatus PC-12/45 single-engine turboprop airplanes that were approaching their landings. The Butte plane crashed just 500 feet shy of the runway, killing 17 people. In the State College incident, the plane was also on approach within miles of the airport, killing six.
The weather conditions for both crashes were also similar. Both planes were flying amid a low cloud deck below 5,000 feet, with a saturated freezing layer between 1,000-2,000 feet. The upper air observations showed a layer around 1,500 feet, the temperatures were below freezing and the air had 100% relative humidity or was saturated.
According to AccuWeather.com meteorologists, these conditions have the potential to accumulate ice on the wings of airplanes, which negatively impacts a plane's ability to control its altitude properly when landing. In both accidents, a cloud layer was present with super-cooled water that would result in quick icing on the wings and a lost of lift.