Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT)
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.
CFIT describes an accident in which the aircraft was working. There is no engine failure, no structural break-up and no loss of control: the crew are flying the aeroplane normally, and it arrives at terrain because their picture of where they are, or how high they are, was wrong.
The classic ingredients are night or cloud, a non-precision approach, an altitude misread or a step-down missed, and a distraction on the flight deck at the moment it mattered. Investigators typically look at the approach chart, the altitude callouts on the cockpit voice recorder, and whether the terrain warning sounded and how the crew responded to it.
CFIT was the largest single killer in commercial aviation until Ground Proximity Warning Systems, and later Enhanced GPWS with its terrain database, became mandatory. It has not disappeared — it persists in terrain-heavy regions, on approaches without vertical guidance, and in general aviation.
Related terms
Terrain awareness and warning systems. They compare the aircraft's position against a terrain database and call "terrain, pull up" before impact.
The aircraft departs from normal controlled flight — a stall, an upset, or a control problem the crew cannot recover from.
From joining the approach to just before touchdown. Together with landing it accounts for a disproportionate share of accidents relative to time spent.
The investigating authority has published its concluding report, with findings, causes and safety recommendations. This is the authoritative account.