Six people, including one child, died Tuesday night in a plane crash in Wisconsin after the pilot reported that ice was building up on the wings as he flew through a thunderstorm, according to authorities.
The six-seat, single-engine plane was traveling from Kenosha to Menomonie when it crashed shortly before 10 p.m. in a wooded area near Mirror Lake State Park, not far from the popular tourist destination of Wisconsin Dells, the Sauk County Sheriff’s Department said. Rain was falling as a thunderstorm moved through the Town of Dellona.
The National Transportation Safety Board said the pilot told an air traffic controller about icing on the wings of the Piper PA-46 Malibu as it flew at 24,000 feet (7,315 meters) and requested permission to descend. Ice buildup on the wings is a major aviation hazard because even a thin layer of ice can make it difficult for a plane to remain airborne.
Air traffic control approved the descent, and the plane began a right descending turn that increased in rate until communications and data tracking were lost, the NTSB said.
Data from FlightRadar24 shows the plane descending sharply at a rate of up to 4,000 feet per minute as its airspeed nearly doubled to 340 mph.
“It has all the earmarks of an icing-related loss of control,” said aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti, who used to investigate crashes for both the NTSB and the Federal Aviation Administration.
The NTSB conducted a special safety review of seven icing-related crashes involving the Malibu and Mirage models of Piper planes between 1989 and 1991. Several of those crashes involved relatively inexperienced pilots who were unfamiliar with how to handle a sophisticated plane like these in icing conditions. The NTSB recommended several changes to pilot training and the planes’ checklists and manuals, along with adding an indicator light for the systems that heat pitot tubes. The heating systems prevent ice buildup in the tubes, helping ensure pilots receive accurate airspeed data.
The Sauk County Sheriff’s Department said it received multiple reports of a downed aircraft. No structures were damaged, and no one on the ground was injured, authorities said. The names of the five adults and one child who died aboard the plane were not immediately released.
The NTSB will lead the investigation into the crash, which happened about 10 miles (16 kilometers) west of Wisconsin Dells. The city bills itself as the “Waterpark Capital of the World” because of its high concentration of waterparks. The area drew more than 5 million visitors in 2025, according to state tourism officials.