FTW03LA005 · Cirrus Design Corp. SR-22
Cirrus Design Corp. SR-22 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From Addison Airport (ADS) to Dallas Executive Airport (RBD)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW03LA005
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Cirrus Design Corp. SR-22
- Aircraft type
- Cirrus SR-22
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N1223S
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Addison Airport (ADS), Addison, TXTo Dallas Executive Airport (RBD), Dallas, TX
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- En route · cruise
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Airframe, component or system failure
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, installation, improper
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During cruise flight, the left aileron separated from one attach point, and the pilot executed a forced landing to a field. Prior to the accident flight, the airplane underwent maintenance for two outstanding service bulletins. During compliance with one of the service bulletins, the left aileron would have been removed and reinstalled. The pilot confirmed with the service center personnel that the maintenance on the airplane was completed and then proceeded to preflight the airplane. After departure, the airplane was level at 2,000 feet mean sea level (msl) for approximately one minute, the pilot noticed that the airplane began "pulling" to the left, and the left aileron was separated at one hinge attach point. The pilot then flew the airplane toward an unpopulated area, shutdown the engine, and deployed the aircraft's ballistic parachute system. Subsequently, the airplane descended to the ground with the aid of the parachute canopy and came to rest upright in a field of mesquite trees. Examination of the left aileron and the airframe aileron hinges revealed that the outboard aileron hinge bolt was missing, and no evidence of safety wire noted. According to maintenance manual procedures, the bolt and washer hardware were to be torqued to a measured 20-25 inch pounds, then safety wired to a actuation fitting. After installation, the manual required a verification of proper hinge bolt installation and torque on the outboard hinge.
Probable cause
The improper reinstallation of the left aileron by maintenance personnel. A contributing factor was the non-suitable terrain for the forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW03LA005
- Event ID
- 20021008X05290
- Case number
- FTW03LA005
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 22f4126f456e92d2401ce5a26d3daaa57c18b782c97c84c2412b7a4e1c834611; retrieved 2026-09-22T10:09:25.131Z.