Accident Overview
On 22 October 2008, a Cirrus SR22, registered as N467BD, was involved in an accident at Zurich Airport. The Swiss Accident Investigation Board (SUST) determined that the accident occurred when the pilot lost control of the aircraft during a tight turn executed at low height, resulting in impact with the ground.
Flight History
The flight encountered a failure of a partially redundant system. The pilot's subsequent procedure for managing this failure did not reduce the repercussions but aggravated them. The pilot demonstrated an inappropriate awareness of the actual situation, leading to overly optimistic communication with air traffic controllers and a failure to declare an emergency. Additionally, the pilot made inadequate use of available navigation aids and had not carried an approach chart for the diversion airport of Zurich. The duration between the onset of the failure and the start of the approach was relatively long. The pilot proposed a high approach speed to air traffic controllers and decided to perform a demanding visual maneuvering for landing under instrument meteorological conditions while the aircraft was in an unfavorable initial situation. The aircraft's flight weight was high.
Contributing Factors
The investigation identified several factors that contributed to the accident or its origin:
- The pilot's procedure for managing a partially redundant system failure that worsened the failure's consequences.
- Inappropriate situational awareness, resulting in overly optimistic communications with air traffic control and failure to declare an emergency.
- Inadequate use of navigation aids.
- The pilot did not carry an approach chart for the diversion airport of Zurich.
- Insufficient understanding among air traffic controllers of the significance of failures and emergencies for a single-engine light aircraft flown by a single pilot in challenging weather conditions.
- The relatively long duration between the failure onset and the approach start.
- The pilot's decision to propose a high approach speed.
- The pilot's decision to perform a demanding visual maneuver for landing under instrument meteorological conditions with an unfavorable initial situation.
- High aircraft weight.
Investigation Findings
The Swiss Accident Investigation Board concluded that the accident was caused by the pilot losing control of the aircraft during a tight turn at low height, which led to the aircraft striking the ground.