Pilatus PC-12 down in Chamberlain, South Dakota, 9 dead.
 

A total of 12 souls on board. Not overly familiar with the PC-12 but I thought 11 was the max (incl cockpit). May have been an infant of course.

Report says youngest passenger aged 7. Does a PC-12 have a dual cockpit?

Unless they had a commuter /high density the configuration the max on the PC-12 is Pilot+ Right Seat, 6 executive and 2 commuter seats, so 9 pax total.

PC-12 is certified for single pilot ops.

All PC-12 variants are certificated for a maximum of 10 pax (including one in RHS) plus pilot. As the youngest on board was clearly not a babe-in-arms, that would suggest the pax limitation was exceeded. A/c was a 4740 kg PC-12/47E.

The conditions are nearly perfect for a failure in ground deicing. We shall see.

Had same storm here in Minneapolis, it was great snowman snow...not so great for light AC flying. Agree with other poster that there's probably not a proper FBO on the field -- it's just automated fuel. FlightAware shows it overnighting there, hopefully inside a hangar.

In METAR below, note UP precipitation code in period ending at 1515Z -- would likely be rain snow mix based on what I saw locally yesterday

Don't know the place, but Mansfield's post led me to check and I couldn't find any online reference to deicing facilities or any mention of an aircraft being deiced there.

Also, there aren't a whole lot of accessible weather stations in the area, but, at around noon on Saturday, stations around the region were reporting winds (in MPH) from NNE at between 25-30, with gusts up to 40, inconsistent with the data posted above. Of course, inconsistency in weather stations is a fact of life, even when conditions are actually nearly identical. OTOH, out there on those plains, when it's windy in one place, it's probably windy in most others within a rather large distance.

NWS weather history for Chamberlain, 9V9:
30 Nov 12:35 pm 33 33 100 NNE7 0.50 Mod SnowOVC00527.55994.629.30
30 Nov 12:15 pm 33 33 100 NNE8 0.75 Lt SnowOVC00527.55994.629.30
30 Nov 11:55 am 33 33 100 NNE8 0.75 Lt SnowOVC00527.55994.629.30

Consistent with #2 above.

Yup. Just seems like an odd outlier. But a moderately strong system was moving through there, so, depending on where any spot was in the circulation at a given time . . .

Does anyone know if deicing is actually available at 9V9?

https://thecount.com/2019/12/01/kirk...a-plane-crash/


...carrying some game with 'em too?

These kind of Part 91 accidents are all to common. The passengers were made up of a closely knit LDS family, as well as a successful business group. Sounds as if they had been on a bird hunting trip in the area as it is well known for that activity. Just because you can afford this kind of aircraft does not make you immune to this kind of accident.

There was another PC12 several years ago that crashed up near Butte, Montana. (?) Same thing as it had more pax than seats. Sounds as if this might be more common than one would think?

Right. I was just wondering if that is still the case. As Mansfield said, above, the weather looks like it was perfect for icing to be a problem down to ground level.

Yes. I have friends who have long had a distressing habit of pushing their luck with flights like this in the family/family business plane. As seems to be the case, here, there's a pilot in the family who steps in for these flights, which lets them leave the company pilot(s) at home. It doesn't do any good to tell them that discretion is always the better part of valor.

I see, in the local story linked by BlankBox that "Maule Rossow [the state's attorney for the county] said at the time of the crash weather conditions included 'strong winds and snow.'” "Blizzard conditions" were reported around the area and Interstate 90 was closed for some time.

Anything known about the pilot‘s experience level? With that weather report and no de-icing available, I personally would rather go on foot.

It looks like it was a good day and time to stay where you were.

It appears that the pilot was 48-yr-old Kirkland Rigby Hansen. Database shows medical current and: