LAX08LA288 · Cirrus Design Corp. SR-22
Cirrus Design Corp. SR-22 · Accident: loss of control in flight during takeoff
From Gerlach, NV (no airport) to St George Regional Airport (SGU)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX08LA288
- 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
- N287SR
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Gerlach, NV (no airport)To St George Regional Airport (SGU), Saint George, UT
- 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
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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 from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that during takeoff from the dirt airstrip, upon reaching an airspeed of about 60 knots, the airplane nosed up, became airborne, and then stalled. He attempted to recover; however, the airplane impacted the ground tail first. Data recorded by the airplane's primary flight display (PFD) indicated that the airplane lifted off at about 61 knots, pitched up from about 9 to 18 degrees nose up, rolled from about 0 to 20 degrees left bank, and stalled about 20 feet above the ground. The PFD data indicated that the airplane impacted in a wings-level, slightly nose-high attitude. The main landing gear separated from the airplane and the tail section partially separated from the fuselage. The pilot attributed the accident to a previously known and repetitive malfunction of the airplane's electric pitch trim. The airplane's pitch trim system uses a spring cartridge attached to the elevator bell crank and activated by an electric motor. When activated by a switch on the control yoke, the trim motor moves the spring cartridge causing the elevator to move the elevator to a new trimmed position. Postaccident examination of the trim mechanism in the tail revealed that it was in a neutral (takeoff) position, not a full nose up position as would be expected if the trim system had malfunctioned. The elevator moved freely through its entire range of motion with no indication of jamming. There did not appear to be any impact damage to the trim mechanism or to its mounting structure. The trim motor electrical connector was found disconnected. It could not be determined whether the connector was pulled apart during the impact sequence or had been intentionally disconnected. Using a battery for power, the trim motor was tested and found to be capable of driving the trim through its full range of motion from the full nose-up to the full nose-down position. The Pilot's Operating Handbook for the airplane states that "it is possible to easily override full trim or autopilot inputs by using normal control inputs."
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain aircraft control during an uncommanded pitch-up during the takeoff.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX08LA288
- Event ID
- 20080917X01482
- Case number
- LAX08LA288
- 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: local date, investigation status, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2008-08-30.
- API snapshot SHA-256: ee32d44b6671e0eeed310b1fb96209db6a8f25e085beccc456abcf5e2da7a355; retrieved 2026-09-15T10:14:10.508Z.