AOPA's Air Safety Institute Releases Early Analysis on Cirrus Crash in North Carolina

On July 7, 2025, at around 2 p.m. local time, a Cirrus SR22T GTS G3 crashed while on final approach to Runway 3 at Raleigh Executive Jetport (KTTA). The flight took off from Merritt Island Airport (KCOI), east of Orlando, and the pilot, who was traveling with his wife and two children, reported electrical and communications issues to Jacksonville Center early on. His stated intention was to continue to his destination without radios. He asked air traffic controllers to pass on that information as he continued up the coast toward Raleigh.

In an initial statement, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said that as he approached Raleigh, the pilot reported unspecified engine issues to the airport’s FBO, leading to speculation he may have had an alternator failure. The wreckage of N5656M was located about four nautical miles south of the field. There were no survivors.

AOPA Air Safety Institute experts Mary Kuehn, FIRC Program Manager and Chief Flight Instructor, and Rob Geske, Senior Manager for Aviation Safety Analysis, discuss what we know so far, what could have gone wrong on this flight, and what pilots can learn to prevent this type of accident. Both are certificated flight instructors and, together, have several thousand hours of flight time, including extensive experience in Cirrus SR20 and SR22 aircraft.

“In Early Analysis: Cirrus crash in Sanford our ASI experts sort through the information we have so available so far, and try to make sense of this accident,” AOPA ASI Senior Vice President Mike Ginter said. “The pilot had a non-emergency situation—radio trouble—that appeared to have turned into an emergency later in the flight. His choice to press on despite clear indications of electrical problems likely made the difference between a successful outcome and this very tragic one.”

“The SR22 is equipped with two alternators, two batteries—in fact, it has a series of redundancies that can lure pilots into a false sense of security,” Geske said. “The pilot elected to continue the flight, and then we see the beginnings of a cascading failure that’s going to be more challenging to deal with.”

It appears that the alternator failure led to an engine failure shortly before the aircraft reached its destination.

“The fuel gauges in the Cirrus are electrically powered, so if he did lose his electrical system and the gauges, he’s not going to see how much fuel is in each tank,” added Kuehn.

In addition, it is notable that the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS) did not appear to be deployed. That could also have been due to the depleted batteries, Kuehn said.

The NTSB will look at all of these issues, as it begins its investigation into the accident, and a preliminary report can be expected within a month.

View the video here.