Avoiding Icy Skies

Beginning December 6, aviation weather users will receive detailed updates on in-flight icing, which can endanger commuter planes and larger commercial aircraft.

Graphical displays, developed by researchers, will for the first time rate areas by icing severity and the probability of encountering icing conditions. The enhanced in-flight icing product is intended to increase safety and reduce flight delays by guiding aircraft away from potentially hazardous icing conditions, thus saving the aviation industry more than $20 million per year in injuries, aircraft damage, and fuel.

Icy weather, including ice pellets and cloud droplets that freeze on contact, may affect air travel anywhere in the country, especially during colder months. When ice builds up on aircraft wings, it can increase the drag on the airplane and make staying aloft more difficult. Even when aircraft are certified to fly through icing conditions, the risk can prompt pilots to detour for hundreds of miles.

In-flight icing has caused a number of fatal accidents, including the 1959 crash that took the lives of rock 'n' roll legends Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper (J.P. Richardson).

In 1994, icing was implicated in the crash of an American Eagle ATR-72, which fell to earth in a high-speed dive near Roselawn, Indiana, killing all 68 people on board.

In this photo, ice has accumulated on the wing of the NASA Glenn Twin Otter research aircraft during an experimental flight.

---LiveScience Staff

• Amazing Images: Photos You Submit
• Image Galleries: Science All Around You
• Videos: Science and Nature in Action

Credit: NASA Glenn Research Center