ERA09FA169 · Cirrus Design Corp SR20
Delta Connection Academy Cirrus Design Corp SR20 · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Orlando Sanford International Airport (SFB) to Orlando Sanford International Airport (SFB)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA09FA169
- 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
- 2 · 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
- N493DA
- Operator
- Delta Connection Academy
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Orlando Sanford International Airport (SFB), Sanford, FLTo Orlando Sanford International Airport (SFB), Sanford, 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
- Maneuvering
- 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, not marked as estimated; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The commercial pilot flight instructor and a commercial pilot receiving instruction departed from Orlando Sanford International Airport on an instructional flight. Approximately 30-40 minutes later witnesses reported seeing the nose of the airplane pitch down vertically and the airplane start to spin. The witnesses added that, just before the airplane disappeared below a tree line, a parachute deployed but did not inflate. Even though the airframe manufacturer did not set a minimum altitude for deployment of the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS), data suggests that a successful deployment of the system below 900 feet above ground level while an airplane is in a spin is improbable. Review of data downloaded from the multifunction and primary flight displays revealed that prior to the initiation of the accident sequence, the airplane was maneuvering between 3,257 feet and 3,131 feet, heading between 078 degrees to 064 degrees. The engine rpm varied between 2,440 rpm to 1,050 rpm. The indicated airspeed varied between 50 to 75 knots. About 31 seconds before the accident, the engine rpm increased to 2,500 rpm and the airplane's indicated airspeed was 54 knots. The Pilot's Operating Handbook states the airplane will stall at an indicated airspeed of 61 knots with a 0 degree angle of bank and flaps at 50 percent. Examination of the wreckage revealed the flaps were 50 percent at impact. In addition, no anomalies were noted with the airframe, flight controls, CAPS, engine assembly, or engine accessories.
Probable cause
The pilot receiving instruction's failure to maintain adequate airspeed while maneuvering, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall and subsequent loss of control. Contributing to the accident was the flight instructor's inadequate supervision and both pilots' failure to deploy the ballistic parachute at a higher altitude.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA09FA169
- Event ID
- 20090218X62344
- Case number
- ERA09FA169
- 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, 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: 2cb88a517ea439a78f878f42f36a894500d8d4e5aaeab55c7b0776faf8999d4d; retrieved 2026-09-13T19:57:36.169Z.