GAA18CA445 · Cirrus SR20
Aerosim Academy Cirrus SR20 · Accident: ground collision while taxiing
From Orlando Sanford International Airport (SFB) to Orlando Sanford International Airport (SFB)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA18CA445
- 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 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
- N482DA
- Operator
- Aerosim Academy
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Orlando Sanford International Airport (SFB), Sanford, FLTo Orlando Sanford International Airport (SFB), Sanford, FL
- Aircraft age
- About 11 years (built 2007)
- 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
- Taxi
- 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
- Ground collision
- 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 flight instructor reported that, following simulated instrument flight instruction to a private pilot-rated student, he took the controls while on approach to the airport. He added that it had started to rain but that the runway was still visible. Before touchdown, the instructor kept the airplane in ground effect to reduce the airspeed, and the airplane touched down about halfway down the 3,578-ft-long runway, bounced twice, and touched down again. He then applied brakes, and the student "got the flaps up." After exiting the runway onto a taxiway, the instructor applied brakes, but the "airplane was still traveling too fast when [it] entered the ramp," and it veered slightly left of the taxiway centerline and struck three unoccupied airplanes on the ramp.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the left wing and left-wing spar box.
The instructor reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
The airport's automated weather observation station reported that, about the time of the accident, the wind was from 200° at 16 knots, gusting to 23 knots; visibility was 1 statute mile; broken clouds at 3,900 ft; temperature 81°F; dew point 73°F; and heavy rain. The instructor landed the airplane on runway 27C.
Probable cause
The flight instructor's failure to maintain an appropriate approach speed in crosswind conditions, which resulted in the airplane landing long on the wet runway and his subsequent loss of directional control when he attempted to exit the runway at high speed onto a taxiway, which resulted in the airplane subsequently colliding with three airplanes on the ramp.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA18CA445
- Event ID
- 20180726X85310
- Case number
- GAA18CA445
- 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: 7b2597658d7b3485b3dcb3ea94e0cb07be941d96efeda4c8a4325b27680a8892; retrieved 2026-09-16T07:59:54.157Z.