ERA21FA263 · Cirrus SR22 T
Skylane Partners Cirrus SR22 T · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) en route
From Frederick W. Smith International Airport (MEM) to Asheville Regional Airport (AVL)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA21FA263
- 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
- 0
- 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 SR22 T
- 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
- N333LZ
- Operator
- Skylane Partners
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Narrative disagrees
- From Frederick W. Smith International Airport (MEM), Memphis, TNTo Asheville Regional Airport (AVL), Ashville, NC
- Aircraft age
- About 10 years (built 2011)
- 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
- En route · climb to cruise
- 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 engine power (partial)
- 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 power plant
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
While climbing to cruise altitude during a cross-country flight, the pilot advised the air traffic controller that the airplane was experiencing engine issues associated with manifold pressure and requested to divert to an airport where the airplane was maintained; however, this was not the nearest airport. The pilot further stated that he was not declaring an emergency. The controller cleared the airplane to the requested airport with a descent to 3,000 ft msl at the pilot’s discretion, and subsequently transferred communications to the controller at the diversion airport. The controller advised the pilot that he needed to maintain 2,500 ft msl, which was the minimum vectoring altitude (MVA). The airplane gradually descended below the MVA, and the controller advised the pilot that a closer airport was located on his right side (about 10 nm); however, the pilot continued to the diversion airport (about 27 nm). When the controller asked if the pilot was going to use the airframe parachute, the pilot indicated that he was attempting to land in a field. The airplane impacted trees and came to rest in a field about 10 miles from the diversion airport.
Data retrieved from the airplane’s Recoverable Data Module (RDM) revealed that the manifold air pressure (MAP) limit was exceeded about 10 minutes into the flight, reaching a peak recorded value of 53.9 inches. The maximum normal operating range for MAP for the airplane according to the pilot operating handbook (POH) was 36.5 inches. The MAP fluctuated from the time of the exceedance until the end of the data, about 19 minutes later.
Examination of the engine revealed that the left turbocharger waste gate contained a small metal fragment wedged between the housing and the valve, which was about 75% closed. Metallurgical examination of the fragment revealed it was consistent with stainless steel. Review of the airplane’s maintenance records revealed that the left turbocharger was replaced 3 months before the accident during the most recent annual inspection. It is likely that the maintenance performed on the airplane during the inspection resulted in foreign object deposited into the exhaust system and jammed the waste gate, resulting in an overboost of the turbocharger and partial loss of engine power.
Probable cause
A partial loss of engine power due to foreign object debris contamination of the left turbocharger wastegate. Contributing to the accident was the pilot’s failure to divert to the nearest airport.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA21FA263
- Event ID
- 20210621103304
- Case number
- ERA21FA263
- 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, 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: 5e2e9cffea5d62f081ce8e5f35e0880d97c0a4459e19e63d3ecb50824a758162; retrieved 2026-09-15T07:30:16.080Z.