The flight was en route from Indianapolis International Airport, Indiana, to O'Hare International Airport, Chicago, Illinois. Bad weather in Chicago caused delays, prompting air traffic control to hold Flight 4184 over the nearby LUCIT intersection at . While holding, the plane encountered freezing rain, a dangerous icing condition where supercooled droplets rapidly cause intense ice buildup. Soon after, they were cleared to descend to . After this descent the pilots were ordered to enter another hold. During the descent, a sound indicating an overspeed warning due to the extended flaps was heard in the cockpit. After the pilot took action by retracting the flaps, a strange noise was heard on the cockpit voice recorder, followed by a sharp, uncommanded roll excursion that disengaged the autopilot. Flight recorder data showed that the aircraft subsequently went through at least one full roll, after which Aguilar and Gagliano regained control of the rapidly descending aircraft. However, another roll occurred shortly after as they engaged the autopilot again. This second occurrence was unrecoverable, and fewer than thirty seconds later, at , contact with Flight 4184 was lost as the plane crashed nose-down into a soybean field near Roselawn, Indiana, killing all 64 passengers and 4 crew on board.