Date:	Tuesday 29 January 1963
Time:	22:44
Type:	Vickers 812 Viscount
Owner/operator:	Continental Air Lines
Registration:	N242V
MSN:	356
Year of manufacture:	1958
Total airframe hrs:	12860 hours
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 8 / Occupants: 8
Other fatalities:	0
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed, written off
Category:	Accident
Location:	Kansas City Downtown Municipal Airport, MO (MKC) -   United States of America
Phase:	Approach
Nature:	Passenger - Scheduled
Departure airport:	Midland Air Terminal, TX (MAF/KMAF)
Destination airport:	Kansas City Downtown Municipal Airport, MO (MKC/KMKC)
Investigating agency:	CAB
Confidence Rating:	Accident investigation report completed and information captured

Narrative:
The Viscount aircraft made a straight-in approach to runway 18 but continued in flight at low altitude over the runway. Near the south end of the runway, at a height of about 90 feet, the plane was observed to pitch down sharply in a wings-level attitude and strike the ground.
Weather conditions at the airport were above VFR minima, but during the let-down from cruising altitude and during the landing approach, the flight encountered conditions which were conducive to the formation of rime ice deposits.

PROBABLE CAUSE: "An undetected accretion of ice on the horizontal stabilizer which, in conjunction with a specific airspeed and aircraft configuration, caused a loss of pitch control."

ICAO Accident Digest No.15 - Volume II, Circular 78-AN/66 (34-46)

Date/time	Contributor	Updates