MIA08FA081 · Cirrus SR22
Cirrus SR22 · Accident: aerodynamic stall/spin on approach
From Pilots Ridge Airport (03NC) to Aero Plantation Airport (NC21)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA08FA081
- 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
- 1 · 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 SR22
- Aircraft type
- Cirrus SR22
- 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
- N615WM
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Pilots Ridge Airport (03NC), Carolina Beach, NCTo Aero Plantation Airport (NC21), Weddington, NC
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- Defining eventThe 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
- Aerodynamic stall/spin
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot announced over the common traffic advisory frequency his intention to land. The airplane approached the airport from the south at an altitude of approximately 800 feet, crossed the airport near mid-field, entered the traffic pattern for a left downwind to runway 6, and then crashed during the turn from left base to final. Winds were 310 degrees at 11 knots, gusting to 20 knots. This combination of wind direction and speed created a situation where grounds speed was higher than airspeed for the turn from base leg to final. The higher ground speed would have required a larger turning radius than normal, or an increased angle of bank than if the winds were calm. (Higher bank angles increase the probability of an airplane entering an aerodynamic stall.) Examination of the wreckage did not reveal any evidence of preimpact mechanical anomalies. Data extracted from the onboard global positioning system revealed that the airplane's last altitude was 838 feet; vertical speed was down -444 feet per minute, indicated airspeed was 60.3 knots, with a pitch attitude of up 4.98 degrees and a left roll of -31.73 degrees. These parameters indicate the airplane had or was about to enter the early phase of an aerodynamic stall.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain adequate airspeed while maneuvering to land, resulting in an aerodynamic stall. Contributing to the accident was the tailwind.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA08FA081
- Event ID
- 20080324X00369
- Case number
- MIA08FA081
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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. 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: 3b36a7496961976ad95356cdd950a111db56bbea60dd9c822545cc1b41573e90; retrieved 2026-09-13T19:00:40.283Z.