ERA10FA347 · Cirrus Design Corp SR22
Cirrus Design Corp SR22 · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Plattsburgh International Airport (PBG) to Essex County Airport (CDW)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA10FA347
- 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
- 3 · 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 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
- N764CD
- Operator
- Smith Margaret D
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Plattsburgh International Airport (PBG), Plattsburg, NYTo Essex County Airport (CDW), Caldwell, NJ
- 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 go-around
- 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 as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
After the pilot reported she was on the downwind leg of the traffic pattern, witnesses observed the airplane higher than normal on the final approach, which was confirmed by radar data. The airplane landed long and bounced on the runway, followed by a go around. During the go around, witnesses observed the airplane pitch up and enter a left turn. The nose of the airplane then dropped, indicative of a loss of control. The airplane impacted the ground in a steep, nose low attitude about one-half mile north of the airport. The airplane was destroyed by impact forces and a post-crash fire. Examination of the wreckage did not reveal evidence of a pre-impact mechanical malfunction or failure. The wing flaps were found in the fully extended (100 percent) position at impact. The airplane's Pilot Operating Handbook stated that, in a go around situation, the flaps should be retracted to 50 percent during the go around, then fully retracted once obstacles are cleared.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain aircraft control during the go-around following a hard landing. Contributing to the accident was the pilot's continuance of an unstabilized final approach and the improper use of flaps during the go-around.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA10FA347
- Event ID
- 20100705X01827
- Case number
- ERA10FA347
- 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: 8e777a57523153f780356e2792020094ca54f4029fe60a288df752d61ec4f16f; retrieved 2026-09-13T20:55:18.489Z.