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Cirrus SR20 G2 PR-ETJ accident

21 Oct 2019 · Caiçara neighbourhood, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil

Srrael Campras dos Santos Cirrus SR20 · Loss of control in flight after takeoff, caused by a low-altitude stall associated with excess weight and insufficient engine performance

From Carlos Prates Airport (SBPR) to Bahia - Jorge Amado Airport (IOS)

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Event

NTSB case
GAA20WA065
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
Unknown · led by another country; figures from NTSB notifications
Event fatalities
4 · all aircraft and ground
Ground fatalities
2
Occupants
Unknown
Survivors
1
InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
1
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
Not recorded

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
PR-ETJ
Onboard fatalities
2
Route
From Carlos Prates Airport (SBPR)To Bahia - Jorge Amado Airport (IOS)
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
Non-U.S., Non-Commercial
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 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
Destroyed

Cause areas

No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.

Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.

From the Wikipedia article

On the morning of 21 October 2019, a small Cirrus SR20 G2 aircraft crashed in the Caiçara neighbourhood, in the northwest region of Belo Horizonte in the state of Minas Gerais.

The accident

Unconfirmed information says that the aircraft had taken off from Belo Horizonte-Carlos Prates Airport bound for Ilhéus Airport in the state of Bahia; at around 8:15 (UTC-3, Brasília time) the Cirrus SR20 G2 aircraft, manufactured in 2007, crashed in the residential neighbourhood of Caiçara between Minerva and Rosinha Sigaud streets; at the moment of the crash the aircraft caught fire and struck two cars at the site; according to the commander of the Belo Horizonte fire brigade there are three fatalities and three more injured. One of the victims was in the aircraft, another was possibly a pedestrian and the last was inside one of the cars. Technicians from Cenipa and the Brazilian Air Force left Rio de Janeiro to go and investigate the accident in Belo Horizonte.

Cause of the accident

According to the final report of the Aeronautical Accidents Investigation and Prevention Center (CENIPA), the loss of control in flight (LOC-I) of aircraft PR-ETJ resulted from a combination of technical and operational factors that led to a stall shortly after takeoff.

Among the contributing factors identified by the investigation, the following stand out:

Excess weight and inadequate balance: the aircraft took off with a weight above the maximum takeoff limit established by the manufacturer, exceeding it by at least 100 kg. The excess weight compromised lift capability and altitude gain after rotation.

Engine performance below expectations: the investigation identified signs of premature degradation and inadequate maintenance of the engine. A fuel distributor valve with a part number different from the one specified was found, as well as evidence of operation with a lean mixture and abnormal vibration. According to the report, these factors indicated that the engine was not delivering its maximum power during takeoff.

Pilot's recent experience: although the pilot was licensed, it was not possible to confirm his recent experience on the Cirrus SR20 model. The report pointed out that a possible lack of familiarity with the aircraft may have made it difficult to adopt effective corrective measures in the face of the emergency.

Sequence of the accident and occurrence of the stall: shortly after rotation, the stall warning was triggered and remained active until impact. The pilot noticed difficulty in gaining altitude and a reduction in the aircraft's speed. During the emergency, the passenger, who was also a pilot, activated the CAPS ballistic parachute system.

Deployment of the parachute at low altitude: the CAPS system was activated when the aircraft was below 500 feet of altitude, considered critical for the proper functioning of the equipment. According to the report, the opening of the parachute caused an additional loss of speed and lift, making it impossible to recover the aircraft before the collision with the ground.

CENIPA concluded that the combination of excess weight, reduced engine performance and low speed led the aircraft into an irreversible stall condition at low altitude.

Translated into English with AI assistance from the Portuguese Wikipedia article “Acidente do Cirrus SR20 G2 prefixo PR-ETJ” (revision 72245104, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article

NTSB narrative

The government of Brazil has notified the NTSB of an accident involving a CIRRUS SR20 airplane that occurred on October 21, 2019. The NTSB has appointed a U.S. Accredited Representative to assist the government of Brazil's investigation under the provisions of ICAO Annex 13.All investigative information will be released by the government of Brazil.

Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset

Sources

Portuguese Wikipedia article: Acidente do Cirrus SR20 G2 prefixo PR-ETJ
Article
Acidente do Cirrus SR20 G2 prefixo PR-ETJ
Translation
Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
Revision
72245104 · 2026-05-15 · retrieved 2026-09-19
Wikidata
Q86733758
Licence
Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record GAA20WA065
Event ID
20191112X15744
Case number
GAA20WA065
Dataset
full-current
Source SHA-256
5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Where each value comes from
Record
pt Wikipedia article "Acidente do Cirrus SR20 G2 prefixo PR-ETJ" (page 6108242, revision 72245104), translated into English with AI assistance; merged with NTSB case GAA20WA065 (events / aircraft)
Date
Wikipedia infobox: date
Place and country
Wikipedia infobox: site
Map position
NTSB record GAA20WA065: NTSB API eventLatitude/eventLongitude
Aircraft, operator and route
Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports); gaps and aircraft details from NTSB record GAA20WA065
Operation
Reviewed correction (2026-09-26): The Cirrus was operated by a named private individual rather than a company: a private flight, which counts as general aviation. The article: "Cirrus SR20 · PR-ETJ · operator Srrael Campras dos Santos"
Fatalities
Reviewed (2026-09-19): Aviation Safety Network record (wikibase 230098), which cites CENIPA final report A-140/CENIPA/2019, https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/230098
Ground fatalities
Reviewed (2026-09-19): Aviation Safety Network record (wikibase 230098), which cites CENIPA final report A-140/CENIPA/2019, https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/230098
Summary
Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (3)
  • One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "Cirrus SR20 G2 PR-ETJ accident" and NTSB case GAA20WA065, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this event outside the United States Wikipedia's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
  • Death toll settled: the NTSB record (GAA20WA065) gives 2 and the Wikipedia article 4; Aviation Safety Network record (wikibase 230098), which cites CENIPA final report A-140/CENIPA/2019 gives 4. One passenger and two occupants of a car on the street died at the scene; the pilot died the next day, so 2 aboard + 2 on the ground. The NTSB figure of 2 counts only aboard deaths. The pt-Wikipedia infobox wrongly puts all 4 aboard. The CENIPA PDF sits behind a bot check and I could not read it. (Medium confidence, for the reason given.)
  • Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.