CHI08CA263 · Cirrus Design Corp. SR20
Western Michigan University Cirrus Design Corp. SR20 · Accident during takeoff
From Battle Creek Executive Airport at Kellogg Field (BTL) to Greenville Municipal Airport (6D6)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI08CA263
- 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. 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
- N1281
- Operator
- Western Michigan University
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Battle Creek Executive Airport at Kellogg Field (BTL), Battle Creek, MITo Greenville Municipal Airport (6D6), Greenville, MI
- 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
- Miscellaneous/other
- 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
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
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 he was planning on making one night touch and go landing. He stated that just as he was rotating on takeoff, he saw a deer run across the runway. In addition, he heard a loud bang and the airplane veered slightly to the left. The pilot stated he was certain he contacted a second deer, but he continued the takeoff as he did not have enough runway left to stop. Once airborne, the pilot was able to see the damage on the left wing. He stated he maintained an additional 10 knots of airspeed and returned to land. The pilot stated the airplane handled "very well" until short final when the left wing dropped and the left main contacted the runway first. He maintained control of the airplane and turned off on a taxiway where he shut down the airplane. The pilot reported he did not see the second deer before it contacted the airplane.
Probable cause
The deer that ran onto the runway contacting the airplane. A factor associated with the accident was the dark night conditions.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI08CA263
- Event ID
- 20080919X01499
- Case number
- CHI08CA263
- 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 2008-08-26.
- API snapshot SHA-256: ac801e8132f8dc1620d064c3b8857a4795b2d0edcdfc9e647d5f1326c42839de; retrieved 2026-09-15T10:14:58.103Z.