Narrative:

Aircraft X was trying to land at cyes (an uncontrolled airport without an instrument approach). I descended him to 050 for arrival. I advised him of moderate rime icing in the vicinity from a pqi departure with the altitudes and temperature. I advised him that no weather was available for cyes and offered him the fve weather since it was the closest airport. I provided him the fve special observation and advised him to contact FSS for the current NOTAMS. He advised that his intentions were to land at cyes visually and advised that his plan was to fly the RNAV approach into fve via the IAF if he was unable to get the field in sight. He asked for a lower altitude to get ground contact.I descended him to 031 which is the minimum IFR altitude (mia) around pqi. Montreal center called to get an updated departure time for aircraft X and advised that they were blocking the airspace for him. By this time the complexity of the sectors was rapidly increasing due to weather and increased traffic. I provided aircraft X with the updated weather at fve and asked his intentions. He wanted to continue and try to get the field in sight. The pqi departure that had reported moderate rime icing was now reporting severe icing and requesting a climb to avoid.I called the controller in charge (controller in charge) over to report the severe icing while getting further reports from [the pqi departure]. A D side was provided at this time and while they were being briefed; I noticed that aircraft X had entered the 035 mia. I told aircraft X that if he didn't have the field in sight that he needed to climb to 035. He advised that he did not have the field and was climbing. He stated that he couldn't get the field in sight and wanted to fly the RNAV for fve. He was issued a right turn to 110 to avoid a higher MVA. While this was occurring; a bgr departure (which I leveled at 100 due to a bgr arrival at 110) reported moderate rime icing at 100. This report was passed to an altrav that was entering the sector that was also landing bgr. I asked the controller in charge to split the sectors due to complexity and surry sector was split off. Any time that an aircraft is going to enter uncontrolled airspace an MSAW alert goes off due to the fact that the mia is listed as 128. An MSAW alert would be expected and would be looked over. I recommend that there be an instrument approach into cyes.

Related reports:

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ZBW Controllers reported that an aircraft was descended below the Minimum IFR Altitude in error to get it below clouds to see the airport.

Narrative: Aircraft X was trying to land at CYES (an uncontrolled airport without an instrument approach). I descended him to 050 for arrival. I advised him of moderate rime icing in the vicinity from a PQI departure with the altitudes and temperature. I advised him that no weather was available for CYES and offered him the FVE weather since it was the closest airport. I provided him the FVE special observation and advised him to contact FSS for the current NOTAMS. He advised that his intentions were to land at CYES visually and advised that his plan was to fly the RNAV approach into FVE via the IAF if he was unable to get the field in sight. He asked for a lower altitude to get ground contact.I descended him to 031 which is the Minimum IFR Altitude (MIA) around PQI. Montreal center called to get an updated departure time for Aircraft X and advised that they were blocking the airspace for him. By this time the complexity of the sectors was rapidly increasing due to weather and increased traffic. I provided Aircraft X with the updated weather at FVE and asked his intentions. He wanted to continue and try to get the field in sight. The PQI departure that had reported moderate rime icing was now reporting severe icing and requesting a climb to avoid.I called the Controller in Charge (CIC) over to report the severe icing while getting further reports from [the PQI departure]. A D side was provided at this time and while they were being briefed; I noticed that Aircraft X had entered the 035 MIA. I told Aircraft X that if he didn't have the field in sight that he needed to climb to 035. He advised that he did not have the field and was climbing. He stated that he couldn't get the field in sight and wanted to fly the RNAV for FVE. He was issued a right turn to 110 to avoid a higher MVA. While this was occurring; a BGR departure (which I leveled at 100 due to a BGR arrival at 110) reported moderate rime icing at 100. This report was passed to an ALTRAV that was entering the sector that was also landing BGR. I asked the CIC to split the sectors due to complexity and Surry Sector was split off. Any time that an aircraft is going to enter uncontrolled airspace an MSAW alert goes off due to the fact that the MIA is listed as 128. An MSAW alert would be expected and would be looked over. I recommend that there be an instrument approach into CYES.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.