On February 21, 1982, the de Havilland Canada DHC-6-100 operating the flight made a forced landing on the frozen Scituate Reservoir near Providence, Rhode Island, after a fire erupted in the cockpit and cabin due to leakage of flammable windshield washer/deicing fluid.

[1][3][4] At approximately 1533, unable to reach T. F. Green Airport in time, Captain Prinster made a forced landing on the foot-thick ice of the western arm of Scituate Reservoir, 12.5 miles (10.9 nmi; 20.1 km) west-northwest of the airport, with the right wing and left main landing gear breaking off upon impact.

[1][7][9] The flight crew and nine of the ten passengers managed to evacuate the burning aircraft and walk to shore (the tenth, a 59-year-old woman with severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and marked atherosclerosis, was overcome by smoke and toxic gas before she could escape).

[1][2][3][7][8][10] The aircraft's fuselage was almost completely destroyed by fire after the landing, with the only surviving parts of the passenger cabin being the stainless-steel seat frames[e] and melted lower-fuselage structure.

[1][9] The washer/deicer was repaired later that day, but the methods routinely used to secure the Tygon tubing did not positively ensure that it would stay attached to the pump and reservoir.

[7][9][15] Both pilots eventually returned to flying with Pilgrim Airlines, although for Prinster this lasted only briefly before he retired from commercial aviation; he died in 2018 due to lingering complications of lung damage from the Flight 458 fire.