ATL04FA096 · Cirrus Design Corp. SR20
Aero Atlanta Flight Center Cirrus Design Corp. SR20 · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From Greenwood County Airport (GRD) to Cobb County International Airport-McCollum Field (RYY)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL04FA096
- 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
- 4 · 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. SR20
- Aircraft type
- Cirrus SR20
- 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
- N8157J
- Operator
- Aero Atlanta Flight Center
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Greenwood County Airport (GRD), Greenwood, SCTo Cobb County International Airport-McCollum Field (RYY), Marietta, GA
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Stall; Tree(s)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Airspeed(vs), not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane was observed by a witness taxing to the active 5000-foot-long runway and depart without an engine run-up. The witness also reported that the wing flaps were in the retracted position. Another witness described the takeoff roll as long and that the airplane remained about 10 to 15 feet above the runway as it approached the departure end of the runway. The witness reported that as the airplane approached the end of the runway the airplane suddenly pitched up at a steep angle to an altitude of about 300-400 feet. The airplane then slowed and appeared to experience a stall rotating about 175-degrees on its vertical axis to the left. About half way down from the 175-degree rotation point observed a slight pitch up of nose, and then airplane entered a near vertical dive to the left. The airplane disappeared from view behind a tree line and two consecutive loud bangs were heard followed by fire ball and black smoke. Examination of the crash site revealed the flap jack screw was found in the up position. According to the pilot operating handbook, the normal procedure for takeoff is for flaps to be extended to 50 percent. The takeoff ground distance, based on performance data, is 1776 feet. No anomalies were noted with the airframe, flight controls, or engine assembly during the post accident examination of the wreckage.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain airspeed during initial climb that resulted in an inadvertent stall and the subsequent collision with trees. A factor was the inadequate preflight planning/preparation when he failed to lower the wing flaps.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL04FA096
- Event ID
- 20040423X00506
- Case number
- ATL04FA096
- 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: 2aabfa5a52595c5d1fee53f533fabfe84428f863c32ba761fa8c52b599550cc7; retrieved 2026-09-20T18:30:07.023Z.