| Mark in WCIowa - 11/3/2026 07:53 From what I've read, there is likely nothing they could have done to save themselves once they flew into this. It looks like they were avoiding larger storms, but this particular one built up very quickly and literally gave them only seconds to even react. They say going lower would have likely iced their wings up even faster as there are larger supercooled droplets as they go lower. The air temp dropped quickly to -47 with the moisture still in the liquid form. Think of an auto in an ice storm and how ice builds up on your outer surfaces while driving. Now think about driving when its negative 40 degrees and if rain could come down then.
Mark sums this up broadly pretty well. FWIW, their readout from the Lear was -47C, which is -53F. That is normally too cold for icing to accumulate. Now, consider this convection they hit to be like rainfall in reverse- it was lifting moisture droplets on a column of warm air from ground level. So, the jet coming from that far subzero temperature instantly hits raindrops or sleet that instantly starts to stick. Apples to oranges comparison, but think of somebody wearing eyeglasses opening a door to step through a 50+ degrees temperature change how instantaneously their glasses may fog over. |
? about that Lear jet crash.
