MIA08LA123 · Cirrus Design Corp SR-20
Capt Cirrus Design Corp SR-20 · Accident: fire/smoke (non-impact) during takeoff
From Williston Municipal Airport (X60) to Williston Municipal Airport (X60)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA08LA123
- 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
- 0
- 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-20
- Aircraft type
- Cirrus SR-20
- 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
- N381CP
- Operator
- Capt
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Williston Municipal Airport (X60), Williston, FLTo Williston Municipal Airport (X60), Williston, FL
- 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
- Takeoff · rejected takeoff
- 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
- Fire/smoke (non-impact)
- 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 student pilot was conducting a solo flight and had completed two full-stop landings with the intention of completing three more; however, he aborted the subsequent takeoff twice. When the student pilot attempted to stop during the second aborted takeoff, he noticed that the brakes were not functioning properly. As the airplane exited the runway on to the taxiway, smoke was emanating from under the wings. The student pilot, airport supervisor, and fire department extinguished fires on both main landing gear. Data retrieved from the airplane’s primary flight display and multi-functional display revealed that the student pilot executed two landings, followed by two sequential aborted takeoffs, within a time frame of 22 minutes. During that time, ground speeds reached 73 knots and engine power during taxi ranged from 920 to 1,270 rpm. Review of the airplane’s pilot operating handbook (POH) revealed that the maximum recommended continuous engine power for taxiing is 1,000 rpm. If the engine power is exceeded and proper braking procedures are not observed during taxi, wheel brake damage or fire could occur. The student pilot also did not comply with the safety information section in the POH, which recommended adequate cooling time for the brakes after heavy use. Examination of the landing gear brake assemblies revealed no evidence of a mechanical malfunction. The combination of the high-speed aborted takeoffs and the excessive taxi speed resulted in both wheel brakes failing and catching on fire.
Probable cause
The student pilot’s failure to follow the manufacturer's recommended taxiing procedures.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA08LA123
- Event ID
- 20080701X00955
- Case number
- MIA08LA123
- 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: 32cebcc545ee8b932e060b575d1cda88c6b35f50049c5ebaf93f12613edbe4c4; retrieved 2026-09-15T09:50:29.532Z.