CEN21FA277 · Cirrus Design Corp SR20
Cirrus Design Corp SR20 · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN21FA277
- 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
- 1 · 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
- N62WR
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 15 years (built 2006)
- 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 pattern final
- 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
A witness reported that he heard the accident pilot report an emergency landing on runway 2, which was not a runway at the accident airport. Shortly thereafter, he observed the airplane make a left turn and it overflew the runway. He stated that the airplane appeared “crazy fast.” The airplane then entered a steep left bank and spun 1 ½ rotations before impacting the ground.
During the impact sequence, the airframe parachute deployed, and the canopy was found still bundled in a straight line away from the wreckage. A postaccident examination revealed the pitot tube cover remained secured on the pitot tube with a “REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT” banner attached. Toxicology testing detected an antidepressant and a mood stabilizing medication in the pilot’s blood and urine. These medications and the associated medical conditions for which they are prescribed can negatively impact judgment and psychomotor performance. However, the investigation was unable to obtain psychiatric records to determine the severity of the conditions for which the pilot was being treated. Also, given the pilot’s skill and experience in this model airplane, the investigation was unable to distinguish between deficits in his capabilities and signs of his psychiatric illness. Thus, this investigation was unable to determine whether the effects from the pilot’s use of the medications or his psychiatric condition were factors in the accident.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain adequate airspeed, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall and spin. Contributing to the accident was the failure of the pilot to perform an adequate preflight inspection, to include removal of the pitot tube cover.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN21FA277
- Event ID
- 20210618103289
- Case number
- CEN21FA277
- 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, cause areas. 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: 281fb7ca38d53a5e27035430bdb9297d610a751d51c02bff15c4def0b3e3e538; retrieved 2026-09-15T07:30:06.738Z.