Anatomy of a Cirrus Stall Accident 

I just start watching AvWeb and Paul hasn't aged in 11 years....

Did a flight review with an experienced pilot a few years ago in an RV 10. We were on right downwind to land simulated engine out. We were high and as he started his base turn he banks hard right and starts pulling. I asked him what he was doing and his answer was to “load up the plane to lose altitude.” I immediately leveled the bank and relaxed the pitch and told him he was going to kill us if he did that. I have no idea where people learn this stuff.

"A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools." Douglas Adams

This is the deadly classic: 1. Low 2. Steep turn 3. Pull because airplane starts to lose altitude rapidly i steep turn 4. Step in opposite rudder because turn gets too steep 5. Make a snap roll opposite to the direction of the turn and ... 6... die It has happened hundreds of times. And no matter how often we flight instructors warn students about steep turns near the ground ... there is always another one.

I’d imagine if the FAA were a person, it would look like this guy.

I'm a student pilot. Thank you so much for doing videos like these. I learn something every time I watch one your presentations.

I believe Paul was among the first aviation writers to dismiss the initially high number of fatal accidents in the Cirrus as being the fault of the airplane. John King, a few years back, may not have used the term, affluenza, as a cause of aviation accidents but he accurately, though diplomatically, spelled it out. As aviation left the realm of middle-class avocations many of those with the means to pursue it were, due to the very root of their financial success, temperamental ill-suited to pursue it. Aviation is not about what you want. If you approach it in the no-excuses manic success at all costs manner that gave you to the ability to purchase a new aircraft, it will kill you.

Who the hell allows an aircraft to enter a 60 degree bank at 300 ft AGL? Regardless of the design of your damn wing.

Paul Bertorelli 2020; folksy, truthful, relate-able - and one hell of a 'stache.

This is the best briefing I've seen to show a student pilot. It also touches on why an aircraft can try to roll out of a descending turn and roll in to a climbing turn. Excellent.

This was posted in 2009 and he references a 2010 magazine article. I think the matrix is broken again

The words of my first instructor from 1979 have never left me, *"Just fly the airplane."*

What in the love of god was he trying to do? You think the instructor would have jumped in at some point. =/

Even when I flew model RC air planes, I was always very careful about the final turn and approach. I took long approaches that avoids anything even close to sharp turns.

Just for some background information on the instructor, he was a very experienced and proficient pilot. He was a one of the best IA/AP mechanics and understood airplanes better than most, but did not even want to do the flight review because he hated the Cirrus. He also was a aerobatic and antique pilot who had just earned his sailplane rating. Before you judge these guys ability just relize that we all make mistakes no matter our experience. He was one of my good friends and missed greatly!

If I may, I am a 22 year old commercial pilot. It is, in fact, less dangerous to fly than to drive. You don't think that 20 year olds should be allowed to fly? I've been flying solo since I was 18. Many airline pilots are 23 years old. Most Air Force pilots are 26 or under. Young people can be responsible as well as old. A person that is 18 can go buy a car or motorcycle, so why can't they buy an airplane? Please use common sense before making a senseless post that makes you look stupid.

I felt the chill run up my back when you described the action of the pilots in the pattern... Scary!

For those who are not native English speakers and are studying for the Icao Proficiency test, I have transcribed the video because YT subtitles are really poor. Here you are: If you’ve ever looked closely at a Cirrus aircraft, you’ve probably wondered about the split leading edge. Hello, everyone! I’m Paul Bertorelli reporting for Aviation Safety and AvWeb. The split leading edge is part of what Cirrus calls its passive safety concept. As you know, every aircraft has a stall angle of attack. For most wings that’s about 17 degrees. But since the early days of the Wright Brothers we, as pilots, have been struggling with the ability to control roll through a stall, and that’s what the split leading edge does. Cirrus’s idea was to build in a slightly lower angle of incidence on the outer panel than on the inner panel. The effect o this is that the inner panel stalls first, the outer panel continues to fly and you maintain roll control with the ailerons. Now, if you’ve ever flown a Cirrus and you’ve done stall demos, you know that this works exactly as advertised. However, as the accident we’re going to dissect in this video shows, it’s not full proof. If you use abusive control inputs, even the split leading edge won’t protect you. Here’s the set up. This accident occurred in February of 2008 at Lindsay, Oklahoma. Which is just south of Oklahoma City. The flight took place close enough to Will Rogers Airport to be tracked by terminal approach radar. According to the NTSB’s accident report, the pilot of the Cirrus SR-22 took off with an instructor to complete a flight review. The airplane evidently flew northwest of the airport and performed some maneuvers before turning back towards the airport. It’s at this point that things began to unravel. Although the pilot’s intentions are unknown, he appears to have flown a path that would’ve put the plane on a right downwind for runway 01 as shown in this graphic. The wind that day was out at the east at 5 knots, so either runway 01 or 19 would’ve been suitable. Whether he intended to use runway 01 or not, the pilot then made a sharp right turn with a steep bank that essentially put the airplane on a left base for runway 19, but on a heading angled slightly away from the perpendicular base leg. A few seconds later, he made a sharp turn back to the left, possibly in attempt to line up with runway 19, or perhaps to enter a left downwind for runway 01. The accident report isn’t clear. Either way, it didn’t work out. The airplane crashed a quarter mile north of the airport killing both aboard. Had there been no witnesses, this accident might have been just another of dozens like it where an airplane digs a smoking crater for no apparent reason. But there was a witness, and a very good one. Like all recent models Cirrus aircraft, the SR-22 had a glass panel suite, the Avidyne Integra. Despite the post crash fire, the NTSB retrieved enough data from the Integra to reconstruct this flight in this video. Here’s what the investigators found. At this point in the flight, the Cirrus is descending for that abortive right downwind. Significantly its altitude is 1520 feet, which is only 555 feet above ground level, and well below pattern altitude. At this point, it’s entering the right turn and reaches a bank angle of 47 degrees. The angle of attack increases from 6.5 degrees to 10 degrees in 9 seconds. That’s a moderate pitch rate increase, but hardly aerobatic maneuvering. The wings weren’t yet heavily loaded because the airplane was still descending slightly. A second later as the airplane was flying through the runway centerline, it rolled sharply left through wings level to a left bank angle that reached 60 degrees. The angle of attack increased from 10 degrees to 17 degrees. At this point, the airplane is at 223 feet AGL. Despite the SR-22 stall resistant wing, the flight data indicates that the entire left wing was above the stall angle of attack. This may have increased drag on the wing and induced more left yaw in moment, essentially, an incipient spin. The left aileron would’ve almost certainly been out of the game at this point. Surprisingly, 2 seconds later, the airplane rolled violently right, pitched down and crashed. When they reviewed the data carefully, the investigators found out why. A fraction of a second before the final right roll started, the data showed that clear right yaw moment, and that’s evidence of right or top rudder application. If the pilot sensed an incipient spin to the left, he might’ve countered it with full right rudder. But unless the wing is unloaded to break the stall, that’s not a counter spin input. It’s a snap roll entry. And that’s apparently what happened in this accident. Here’s some final observation. You might say that this video shows that the more things change, the more they stay the same. The accident we’ve seen in this video is very typical with a type of stall spin or stall accident that airplanes have been doing in traffic patterns for years. For some reason we can’t seem to learn that steep banks and high load factors in the traffic pattern invite disaster. They should be avoided at all cost. It’s that simple. To find out more about this accident, see the January 2010 issue of Aviation Safety at www.aviationsafetymagazine.com. Elsewhere on AvWeb you can hear a podcast with John King and Rich Stowell, two veteran instructors, discussing stall/spin accidents. I’m Paul Bertorelli reporting for Aviation Safety and AvWeb. Thanks for watching. *** If you're interested in a free Icao Test Preparation Class, contact me at max_bukiewicz at hotmail or teachermax at skype. Cheers!

More stall-spin accidents occur when the engine quits after take off than what is commonly believed to be the from the "base to final" approach turn. See AOPA magazine statistics for authority. It's quite rare for the airplane to stall in the traffic pattern when things are going well. But imagine you have just departed and are climbing through five hundred feet when the engine abruptly quits. Studies show most people need at least five seconds to figure out they need to immediately react. Buy that time, the energy has been greatly depleted and the airspeed is slow. The airplane is about to stall and the nose is still in a climb attitude. Unless the pilot is cocked and ready to instantly pitch over, an incipient stall-spin will likely occur. We need to teach pilots prior to departure to be ready at an instant to get the nose over into below level attitude and fly the plane as slowly as possible into the inevitable crash. As Bob Hoover has always pounded into our thick skulls: "fly the damn thing into the crash as long a possible". This way the energy will be dissipated slowly so that there will be at least a chance of survival. The force of the crash is quadrupled with respect to speed as the craft dissipates its energy along the ground. The longer it takes to land in the crash the better chance you have to survive. Simple as that. Guys, the base to final stall spin event is extremely rare. Yes, we should pay attention to high "G" loading and steep turns while low to the ground. But the biggest killer of people in GA accidents is when the engine quits after take off. We need to be hair-triggered and ready to push the nose over. Better to crash into something where it takes time to dissipate the energy than to go straight down. In that event, there is no chance at all.

Great video. CFI must have been sleeping. This was a go around. That said pilot traning doesn't include hands on spin training. For that reason pilots should play with flightsims where you can develop muscle memory and technique and gain a very deep understanding of stalls, spins and in this case snap rolls. So any aspect or scenario can played out until you know how you will deal with it as here, just abort and go around.

Paul great analysis and a very educational message for all to remember. What I find truly tragic with this accident was that they had an out being a Cirrus yet the BRS was not used. I hope if I am in that situation or another airframe failure I will remember that handle

I like these videos that get right into the lessons ,and what can be done if you find yourself in a little trouble.

As a cfi I can say this was so totally unnecessary. Why would the instructor giving the review even allow this? So sad and unnecessary 😞

The same effect is achieved in the wing of a Cessna 172, whose angle of incidence is larger near the wing root, and rotates to a smaller angle of incidence towards the wing tip, but without the ugly abrupt transition seen in the Cirrus. The Cessna wing tapers and twists elegantly and continuously, to make sure the wing root stalls first, then the stall progresses outward toward the tip. The Cessna wing aerofoil cross section also transitions continuously from a flat bottom from the wing root, to a more symmetrical, curved bottom airfoil towards the tip. A beautifully elegant design. The abrupt transition of the Cirrus, including an ugly stall strip right at the step of the wing, is ugly and abrupt. The Cessna also has a beautiful flap design, with rails that make the flap first just extend, then start tilting and extending, opening a slot of a Fowler flap as it gets to full flaps. I have always admired the beauty of the Cessna wing and flaps. I'm amazed that the Cirrus reverted to an ugly two-stage wing with abrupt transitions and stall strips.

Experienced SR22/ATP pilot here. Sad and preventable accident. People tend to get into a Cirrus and think they're in an F16, think "glass cockpit, sidestick, etc:...which, in my experience, can lead to overestimation of the aircraft. The Cirrus is a wonderful aircraft, but it demands just as much respect as any other flying machine. Let's all keep learning what NOT to do as well as what TO do. RIP, aviators.

Geez! This guy was doing a flight review ?!? I'm surprised the instructor didn't just tell him to go around or grab the yoke !

This feature was on the spitfire in the '40s, the wing was slightly twisted down at the outer edges, the inner wing stalled first, buffeted the pilot warning him of max AoA

Hello Y'all. The airplane did not kill the pilots. The pilots killed the airplane and themselves, or maybe one of them did. An airplane recovers from a stall just as fast as it enters a stall. The stick is the AOA lever, reduce AOA and you are not stalled. Having read accident report since the 1950s it is pretty clear that the main problem can be traced back to what the pilot has not been taught. Many students go through their training being taught that when you pull the stick back the nose comes up. And for hundreds of times, perhaps thousands of times, sure enough the nose comes up when you pull the stick back. Then one day, while stressed like these pilots were, the pilot pulls back on the stick and lo and behold the dang nose went down instead of up. This causes instant disbelief and panic. So, the poor guy pulls harder on the stick which of course keeps the airplane in a stall/spin mode until the farm stops the rotation. Read as many stall/spin accidents as you can find. I think you will find that more pilots kill themselves like that then any other "probable cause". How about the Airbus that went down on flight from Brazil to Europe couple years ago? I was teaching a friend how to do a snap roll. I did one and let him try his hand at it. (Aeronca Chief) When he got the stick back all the way and with full rudder and aileron the plane really rolled. He instantly went into panic mode and held the yoke back even harder. I had to hit his arm with a hard blow to get him off the yoke. A couple hours later we were sitting in a tavern having a beer. He said to me, "If you had not been in that airplane they would have found me in the wreckage with that yoke buried in my belly. Clearly when the Sirrus did that violent roll from left to right you can bet that the stick was all the way back and most likely stayed there until the farm neutralized the control system.

So is this a situation where there was a CFI on board with a student pilot? My CFI would never have allowed me to enter the airport environment in such a shoddy manner, below pattern attitude etc.

Really useful analysis and an excellent video.

It's a lot like almost missing an exit on the highway: having to do a quick, risky maneuver of the car to get across lanes instead to the exit rather than just going to the next exit and saving your life. His mistake was trying to make exit 19 when he could've just gone around one more time.

I've seen modern crop dusters that seem, to my casual eye, to be breaking all the rules for stall spins that I have been seeing. Are these planes designed differently? They seem to rise up after doing a pass and do a 180 and zoom down and do another pass in the opposite direction!

I just started my flight training and was told by an older, experienced pilot to read Stick and Rudder by Wolfgang Langewiesche. I'm hoping that the the principles taught in that book, along with a lot of practice, will keep me from ever getting into an unfortunate situation like the one shown in this video.

Let's not forget, we as pilots all know that the wind and other weather may have played a part. It is easy for us to criticize the deceased, but let's not think it cannot happen to the rest of us. Let's just all be careful and enjoy many more Christmases to come with our families.

Thank you for a very informative video

Thank you Paul

My instructor tells me never to exceed 30˚ when making turns in the pattern. In my opinion, its better turn final early than late because of the tendency to increase bank angle. If you do overshot your base and you've extended you downwind enough, it's better to keep the turn shallow and realign yourself with the runway.

This leading edge change of angle design principle was used on the design of the Mitchell designed Spitfire fighter aircraft after the experience of loss by a stall of Schneider cup entrant some years earlier. The wing root of the Mitchell designed Spitfire was at a different angle to the remainder of the wing which reduced the tendency to suddenly wing stall over its whole length. Observation of this may be made by looking down the leading edge of the wing which illustrates the not so otherwise apparent different angle.

Sorry for your loss. A good reminder to that mistakes do happen and we are susceptible. After such a tragedy don't blame, learn!

Very informative. Thank you

The Cirrus is a fast and thus, demanding airplane to fly, it's certainly no Cessna 150. I've read most of the Cirrus accident reports and the majority are by low time pilots with limited high performance experience. They should be proficient in something like a Bonanza, Piper Arrow or Cessna 210 before being turned loose in a Cirrus.

@GuyJCooper Simulated engine out should be done with a hard deck at ...say 6,000 ft AGL? Not atop a runway. And then, there is that classic fuel management accident: Fuel selector valve set to pull gas from only one wing. Banking during the turn to final causes remaining fuel in this wing's tank to move away from pump line by gravity and centrifugal forces = Fuel starvation and engine dies off --> slows low speed aircraft even further --> inner wing stalls --> spin --> terrain.

@dboy4ever well, that could work. howeverproper counter spin procedures tell us to control roll with rudder. PARE :power idle aileron neutral, opposite rudder, elevator to brake the stall. If he was indeed in a fully stalled condition with the left wing being more stalled then the right, (a left rolling incipient spin) then countering with aileron would only make the spin tighter and harder to get out of. Opposite rudder was proper for a spini think he wasnt stalled completely thus a snap roll

High load factors and steep bank angles are a not to be done in traffic. It would have been better to level the wings, climb to a safe altitude and attempt a safe landing. I ride a bicycle and I know from personal experience not to attempt steep bank angles with high load factors... especially in traffic!

With CFI in right seat, this approach to land not only borders the threshold of intentional criminality but also fully enters the realm of lethal lunacy

When I was taught some fifty years ago...my instructor said you cant stall in a slip....has worked for me for years...the problem now is they do not teach fly the airplane...nor do they teach unusual attitudes..ie spins, slips, basic airmanship...now its you have a computer...your good to go

I wonder if the flight data from the cockpit instruments reported a tachometer reading. Maybe an idle one? For some reason, I'm hearing the CFI overseeing this flight review telling the reviewing pilot a few moments before entering the pattern, "you just lost your engine." Then realizing he wouldn't make Runway 1 at 550 ft., he opted for runway 19 instead. That's a guess based on past experience with an instructor with a penchant for pattern engine-out scenarios. Maybe a left 360 turn away from runway 19 to bleed off a few hundred feet and a roll out on a short base/final would have been a better option.

@iratherfly Classic accident? Piper has no issue with uncovered fuel inlets in any angle of bank up to 60 degrees and they haved used a left/ right fuel selector for decades.

@acemannw 550 feet above the ground and no warning. you'd have to have spiderman like reflexes to pull the chute handle before you hit the ground. (depending on speed and direction of travel, (horizontal/vertical) the parachute takes at least a thousand feet to work anyway.)

@anythingthatflys Can you provide evidence of your statement: "putting the caps system on it was the only way they got the plane certified"? Cirrus state that the plane was deigned with CAPS from the outset.

Very sad. A good reminder for all of us.

@acemannw at ~250 feet AGL?

@shaneboulds It seems to me that the deceased pilot applied the correct spin recovery procedure (opposite rudder) in what seemed to be a partial stall. But due to the peculiar design of the Cirrus aircraft, this actually made things worse because the ailerons were still effective. I heard once a Cirrus gets into a real spin it's nearly impossible to recover and that's why they come with parachutes. Correct me if I'm wrong

although the actions of the pilot caused this issue and really nothing would have changed the results......the wing design of the Cirrus helps the stall issues....But another help in the stall problems on many planes are Vortex Generators....they have been studied awhile. there are many videos out there showing the stall speed can be lowered way down with VG's added to the wings.....helps a ton .

What was the approach speed? Was that mentioned? Didn’t get that.

wow...I'm beginning to think that all pre-pilots should first build and fly model airplanes (Like I did). It teaches you what flies and what struggles to fly. I'm still a student pilot, several solo's. My instructor is old school....tries to distract me....talks about off- subject issues at critical times.....Flying models taught me that even though your friends are trying to get you to do stupid things like buzz that guy in the parking lot or chase that bird....you MUST keep the plane flying....not falling...or you'll be repairing your model....And if you are flying a model and the engine is barely running at all.....that's about how most full size, single engine airplanes fly....so you have to be smooth and pretty much level and very careful in the pattern.....heavy input is not an option....an embarrassing go-around beats a forced landing any day. Hope you live to tell about it.

Does this sound about right? ... Only 223 AGL, little room for a stall recovery, much les a spin. This would make him averse to using too much foward should a stall start. ... That last left bank was very aggressive therefore with high back pressure (AOA) to keep from descending too much. Left wing stalls first; possibly when starting the roll-out, since the left aileron comes down. He may have tried (more) right bank, but quickly saw no effect. So... he kicks right rudder. The right yaw would now slow and stall the right wing, initiating the right snap roll. He may also still be holding right roll aileron, thus aiding the right roll rotation... He probably does not want to reduce back pressure for a lower AOA due to the low altitude. -- Regards.

True, the 30 degrees of bank assumes you're flying the airplane correctly in the first place. You can be straight and level and yank it into a stall, or if you're stretching the glide in an engine out situation; the 30 degrees of bank is a general rule to keep people from yanking and banking themselves at what would usually be a safe airspeed into a stall/spin below 1000' AGL.

John, you are wrong. An airplane can only descend if the wings are making less lift than needed to support the aircraft (lightly loaded). Alternatively, it can only climb if the wings are making more lift (highly loaded). The more rapid the descent, the more lightly loaded the wing is.

Is that wing design similar to what the IL-62 used? Or I'm just wrong

Pretty much proves low altitude means no recovery chance. A personal rule should be --No large bank in traffic patterns. The aircraft will be too low and slow to take the chance, especially on a downwind leg or any maneuver involving a crosswind component.

I recreated the exactly same behaviour using Cirrus Vision SF50 in X-Plane.

does anyone know if SR22 has an AOA as standard equipment?

My flight manuals and instructors always taught,,,,never exceed 15 degrees bank at traffic pattern altitude and of course never go below approach speed until final approach then use best rate of glide with some throttle unless high winds....

The real question: What was the aircraft doing in the pattern at 500'+ BELOW pattern altitude making totally non standard maneuvers??? There was a CFI on board and he/she allowed this? Or, worse yet, was the CFI at the controls? This is but one of many GA accidents that are a direct result of poor judgement. In flight school, I was told repeatedly that the most deadly threat I faced was something the instructor(s) could NOT teach me (or anyone else), and that was failure to exercise sound judgement at all times while piloting an aircraft.

wonder about drag from the lower angle of attack?

To those of you who are saying the pilot wanted to crash. You need to go through the training they have to take and then earn you ratings. I live in Oklahoma Ive flown here and the wind can be Highly unpredictable, not only this but, whos to say it was the pilots mistake maybe on final the controls were bumped. But the On board data shows what happened. Like it or not all of you who say you would have done this and that...You were not there. Regardless of the reason. 2 Aviators were lost... take off your hat in remembrance and respect the families instead of pointing Fingers.

@dboy4ever Well considering he was below 500 feet he wouldn't have the time to apply full spin recovery procedures, OR the time to enter a full spin in the first place. Simply the plane stalled, spin recovery was applied and since it was so early in the incipient spin stage, it caused a snap roll, (A basic aerobatic maneuver) and that ultimately led to disaster in this case. RIP to the pilot.

Out of curiosity, does anybody know what was used to reconstruct the data? The video clip bears a resemblance to the X-Plane simulator program.

@dboy4ever that sounds about right. I dont know enough about cirrus aircraft. I dont have any time in them. But he most certainly did something to make it worse.

Just because you are rich enough to buy a cirrus doesn't mean you should!!

Slats will delay stall on the protected portion of the wing, but if you abuse it it will do the same thing. This was a very abused case.

"I do not follow the notion to make planes foolproof. In engineering, there is a saying that whenever you built a system, that an idiot can handle, someone will invent a bigger idiot." Malte Holtken's unbeatable piece of aviation wisdom. Best ever - brilliant. Any other comments are redundant.

A Sr20 did crash on the street that I live on a few years back

Not a pilot but it looks to me like the most dangerous thing you can do in aviation is a low altitude, low speed, sharp turn.

I was on the Cirrus list of pilots take up a 22 and for me I just wanted to feel the difference with new mfg. technology and airframe. I went through all the performance maneuvers and wanted to do a stall spin. He mentioned at the time that the aircraft was not meant to do a stall spin. For some reason I thought all FAA certified AC needed to go through that test. The parachute has some limitations as well. You have to be at a certain low speed before deploying it, limiting its use.

From what I understand don't aircraft already have 'wash-out' - a twist of angle of incidence between the root and tip of the wing ? I know that some training gliders have an aileron differential - upgoing aileron giving more deflection than down going drag inducing one - less adverse yaw and more down force to drag inducing lifting force, on opposite wing, to help reduce a yaw to spin. Then again a down going wing also creates a higher angle of attack, to angle of oncoming airflow, when angle of attack is near a stall - hence requirement of a wing tip of lower angle of incidence.

"Getthereitis" at its worst. Too much comfort as a pilot and you forget its not a game. RIP

A sterile cockpit environment on landing is a must. I cant help but consider that maybe the pilot and instructor where preoccupied. Thank you AVweb for another informative video. This keeps those of us that view these to be safer in the air.

Would that be avoidable if it was Diamond da42?

So he didn't use full right rudder AND neutralize the controls. But I don't like those steep angles and that low at all anyway. What were they thinking? Just set up to land again. That approach is dangerous during both turns.

Why didn’t they just plan their approach, circle and land like everyone else? Did they get bored or something?

When I was a student pilot, I remember another instructor walking into the office yelling at his student: "What the hell were you doing!?! Never exceed 30 degrees of bank in the pattern!!!" Apparantly it wasn't this students first time doing this and three instructor was as scared as he was angry. I think that sometimes you have to fire the student. Watching this animation, I can't even imagine approaching an airport like that. Below the pattern altitude, overshooting an improper pattern entry and then violently overcorrecting. I'm willing to bet that he never demonstrated good situational awareness or stick and rudder skills. But, he had SR-22 money and got his way.

What does he mean "high load factors" at 5:17?

I think this is what happened in Houston also ! A buch of turns and go around an low altitude.. i think that stick i hard to get used to

People can talk angles of attack, split stall-proof wings or TCAS all they want, but what it boils down to is simple common sense: You do not maneuver abruptly when low and slow; period. Missed the runway? Go around! Being late somewhere or embarrassed about missing it is not worth your life.

So was this pilot error?

Yeah this was totally avoidable. The late pilot must have not been paying attention and realized he was not lined up correctly for finale... GO AROUND. This is a shame really. Always go around unless engine out.

Wow that was strange that they did a right spin/snap on a left base to final turn. I would expect to see a skidding turn with not left bank but gobs of left rudder instead of a slipping turn with lots of left bank and too much right rudder. They explained what happened very well by showing the airplane snap roll to the right from a left turn. Too me it looks like coordination was just the initial problem but the major mess up was not unloading the stick when rolling upright.

Thanks for revealing why cirrus22 's are such widowmakers.......

A Go-Around cannot be held against you if you survive!

I don't get it, why not just take the time to fly level and around to line up properly with the runway for the landing?

Great engineering feat!

ive pulled that off on flight sim and the g-s are always 1.3- 1.9 and i always miss the centerline and endup at full throttle and going for the correct approach never works unless u want to land 3/4 down the field

There is no doubt in my mind that this was a simulated engine out during a BFI, every BFI I've ever had, has one. Probably started at pattern altitude, typically 800' AGL The pilot may have burned too much altitude "diagnosing" the problem (switching tanks, fuel pump, carb heat, Etc...). The CFI may have pulled power too close-in requiring the abrupt maneuvers to line-up with the run-way. In any case, bad decisions lead to this accident. Practicing emergencies can be fun, exhilarating and scary, but its a necessary and required part of training. Calling the pilots morons based off this is just plain stupid as this appears to me to be a case of poor judgement, but not of arrogant disregard for safety or showing-off .

I don't know why people can't grasp the concept that a plane can't be flown like you drive a car.

Trying to correct a bad approach to landing with aggressive control inputs while you're low and slow.

@kingcrumpet at least not on final, or in slow speed and at low attitude

left "yawn" (3:56) ? I thought the term was yaw?

I am wondering how they know the aircrafts AoA from the data recorder. A Cirrus has no AoA sensor.