ERA25LA301 · Cessna 560XL

On August 14, 2025, about 1715 eastern daylight time, a Cessna 560XL, N802TD, was substantially damaged when it was involved in an accident near Oakland Park, Florida. The airline transport pilot and commercial pilot were not injured. The airplane was operated as a Title 14?Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 business flight.

The pilot and the commercial pilot arrived at Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport (KFXE), Fort Lauderdale, Florida, about 1100, with the intent to fly the airplane to Orlando Executive Airport (ORL), Orlando, Florida, with an estimated departure time of 1400. The airplane was at FXE to be painted; however, shop personnel informed them upon their arrival that the airplane was not ready to be released, and their 1400 departure time would have to be pushed back. The pilot said he utilized this time to perform a quick walk around the airplane, he adjusted the seat and rudder pedals and made plans to do a final operational check once the airplane was towed to a different location on the airport to be fueled.

The pilot said that when the airplane was ready, he performed an external pre-flight check of the airplane and arranged to add 3,500 pounds of fuel. Personnel from the paint shop arrived at the airplane, and he and the commercial pilot assisted them with multiple operational checks which included engine runs, manipulation of the control column to check flight control positioning, and cycling of the flaps from 0 to 35 degrees (five cycles). During this time, the pilot noticed that the control column seemed a bit closer than he remembered when it was full forward as compared to a different airplane of the same make and model. Otherwise, the controls seemed to move as normal with no unusual binding or limitations.

The pilot said that he and the commercial pilot completed normal pre-engine start checks, started the engines and taxied to the active runway, held short, then taxied onto the runway after receiving takeoff clearance. After taxiing onto the runway, the pilot gave the controls to the commercial pilot. The pilot said the takeoff roll was uneventful but once he retracted the landing gear, he noticed that the airplane was at an unusually high pitch and requested that the commercial pilot to lower the nose. He said, it became immediately obvious that she was unable to do this, so he assumed command of the airplane and placed full available forward pressure on the control column. An emergency was declared and a 180° left turn was made in an attempt to return, but both pilots were unable to arrest the climb, climbing to 9,500 ft, which was well above their assigned altitude of 2000 ft mean sea level. The tower controller asked them if they could see the runway and we were unable to see it due to the uncommanded steep climb. The tower controller then asked them to change to a Miami Air Route Traffic Control Center frequency, but he and the commercial pilot had both arms pressing forward on the control column in an attempt to prevent a stall.

Over the next several minutes, the crew attempted to maintain control of the airplane during a series of radical pitch up events into one or more stalls followed by an uncommaded steep pitch down event. The flight then proceeded towards Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport for landing on runway 10L, where the pilot performed a 360° turn to reduce airspeed. With the throttles at idle power and the speed brakes deployed, he was able to lose about 120 kts of airspeed in the 360° turn but was still about 30 knots above normal approach speed. The pilot continued towards the runway and when in ground effect, the airplane pitched up again uncommanded. The pilot was able to correct that condition and landed on the last 1/4 of the runway before he brought the airplane to a full stop. The pilots then taxied the airplane after receiving approval from emergency personnel.

Postaccident examination of the airplane revealed an elevator pushrod was bent with evidence of contact with an adjacent structural member.

Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset