Approach
From joining the approach to just before touchdown. Together with landing it accounts for a disproportionate share of accidents relative to time spent.
The approach is where terrain, weather, configuration, energy management and a hard deadline all coincide. Stabilised-approach criteria (on speed, on path, configured, by a defined height) exist precisely to make the go-around decision objective rather than optional.
Non-precision approaches without vertical guidance carry markedly higher risk, which is the link between this phase and CFIT.
Related terms
An airworthy aircraft, under the crew's control, is flown into ground, water or an obstacle, usually because nobody on the flight deck knew the terrain was there.
Flare, touchdown and rollout. Overruns, hard landings, runway excursions and loss of directional control live here.
Windshear, thunderstorms, turbulence, icing or low visibility were causal. The finding is usually less about the weather than about the decision to fly into it.