A
controlled flight into terrain (
CFIT, usually pronounced "
see-fit") is an accident in which an
airworthy aircraft, under
pilot control, is unintentionally flown into the ground, a mountain, a body of water or an obstacle. In a typical CFIT scenario, the crew is unaware of the impending disaster until too late. The term was coined by
engineers at
Boeing in the late 1970s.